Student Blogs & Vignettes

Andreas Norlin

ABOUT MY RESEARCH

I am a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Maggie Brisbin, where I will be studying mixotrophic organisms and their interactions.

About eight years ago, when I was doing my first degree in marine biology, I was unaware of the intricacies of protist trophic modes. During my studies I mostly learned about autotrophy and heterotrophy as the main trophic modes, designating organisms as primary producers or consumers. This view has for a long time been the mainstream idea of protist interactions, making the foundation of our knowledge of the carbon cycle.

Since then, I have started working with mixotrophy, which is defined as the combination of photo-autotrophy and heterotrophy within the same organism, often within the same cell. This idea opens the possibility of trophic modes being a spectrum rather than a binary thing and it has the potential of complicating our understanding of how microscopic protists interact. My interests over time have evolved from being a pure experimentalist to a combination of experimentalist and theoretical computer modeler. You could say that I have become a scientific mixotroph, as my interests continue to be split between the gathering of empirical data and the exploration of systems through mathematical descriptions.

Ultimately, I am interested in the full pathway, from collecting and analyzing the data through to developing mathematical abstractions, where creating models to best describe the data can lead to new insights and pave the way for new potential experiments.

WHY USF CMS?

As a pure biologist, it is easy to forget that marine biology is only one little part of the Marine Sciences and that there are also geologists, physicists, and chemists who study the ocean: the single biggest environment on earth. An environment that is constantly changing, both through natural planetary evolution and especially recently through human accelerated climate changes.

The first time I learned about CMS I was simply looking around for potential opportunities to continue working in a research field. I found a post about a faculty member seeking students for their new lab at CMS, and I jumped at the opportunity. Learning more about CMS only made me more excited about the prospect of attending the grad program there as I have always been an eager learner, with a curious mind and a drive to seek knowledge and understand complex subjects.

It thrills me immensely that CMS offers a program that allows me to acquire even more knowledge about the marine sciences. Though my focus will be on the biological side of things, my future research can only benefit from having a core knowledge of the other oceanographic disciplines.