Research Opportunities

 

BUMP strongly encourages hands-on research at the undergraduate level and offers each student the opportunity to spend time in a marine field enviroment. Several BUMP courses involve a field or laboratory project involving hands-on collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. Often students take what they have observed and learned from a course to the next level by developing an original research project under the supervision of a faculty member in his or her lab. Juniors and Seniors can receive credit for their research via Undergraduate Research (CAS MR 491/492).

Advanced Seniors can also participate in Independent Work for Distinction, which is an opportunity to develop a special competence in research with a two-semester independent program of study culminating in a thesis and an oral examination in front of a faculty committee.

Additionally, funding for undergraduate research and Work for Distinction is available through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) during the fall, spring, and summer semesters.

2011-2012 UROP Student involvement

Name	Semester	Research Title	Mentor
Arianna Medina	Spring 2012	Context-Dependency of Personality Traits and the Effects of Fitness in the Clown Aneminefish, Amphiprion percula	Peter Buston

2010-2011 UROP Student involvement

Name	Semester	Research Title	Mentor
Stephanie Deckard	Fall 2010	An Ecological Comparison through Stable Isotope Analysis of Stranded Humpback Whales, Megaptera novaenangliae, to Free-ranging Humpback Whales in and Around the Gulf of Maine	Les Kaufman
Christina Stephens	Spring 2011	Color Vision in the Schooling Reef Fish Chromis viridis	Jelle Atema

2009-2010 UROP Student involvement

Name	Semester	Research Title	Mentor
Emily Munday	Summer 2009	Determining Existence of Alternate Ecological States and Assessing Recovery in Two Potential in Two Belizean Coral Reefs based on Species Composition	Les Kaufman
Samantha Gifford	Spring 2010	Using Bottom-dweller and Stable Isotopes to Investigate the Sources of Nitrogen Fueling the Food Chain in Narragansett Bay	Robinson Fulweiler
Pamela Braff	Summer 2010	Effect of Ammonia on Sea Anemone Development, Reproduction, Survival and Behavior	John Finnerty
Anthony Lever*	Summer 2010	Habitat Preferences of Belizean Cleaner Gobies, and Effect of Habitat Reduction on Colony Size	Phil Lobel
Arjun Joshi	Summer 2010	The Newfound Trophic Role and Population Characteristics of Sand Lance (ammodytes spp.) in a Gulf 0f Maine Ecosystem	Les Kaufmam

* Marine Science minor

2008-2009 UROP Student involvement

Name	Semester	Research Title	Mentor
Catherine Achorn*	Summer 2008	The resilience of the coral Pocillopora damicornis when damaged by lesioning and when exposed to an acidified environment	Les Kaufman
Erin McDougal	Summer 2008	Effect of shell disease on mate selection in the American lobster, Homarus americanus	Jelle Atema
Raphael Fennimore	Summer 2008	Understanding of the Spatial Ecology of Adult Ammodytes dubis and their Relationship with select Zooplankton	Les Kaufman
Zachary Gersten	Fall 2008	The effect of predation alarm cue on the disperal of juvenile convict cichlid fish	Maria Abate
Samantha Gifford	Fall 2008	Bostonian Peguins and the Fate of Nitrogen – Using the New England Aquarium’s Penguin Exhibit as a Mesocosm for answering fundamental questions about the nitrogen cycle	Robinson Fulweiler
Aurora Tsai	Spring 2009	A GIS-based habitat distribution model of lobsters (homarus americanus) in coastal areas of Rhode Island	Jelle Atema
Samantha Gifford	Spring 2009	Bostonian Peguins and the Fate of Nitrogen – Using the New England Aquarium’s Penguin Exhibit as a Mesocosm for answering fundamental questions about the nitrogen cycle	Robinson Fulweiler
Munday, Emily	Summer 2009	Determining Existence of Alternate Ecological States and Assessing Recovery in Two Potential in Two Belizean Coral Reefs based on Species Composition	Les Kaufman

* Marine Science minor