Student Blogs & Vignettes

Shannon Riley

ABOUT MY RESEARCH

I’m a master’s student at CMS working with Dr. Heather Judkins and Dr. Steve Murawski. I’m interested in ecology, particularly the distribution of organisms in the ocean. In addition, I’m interested in combining distribution data with environmental and temporal conditions. My research will focus on the ecology of cephalopod paralarvae (the post-hatchling life stage). I currently plan to utilize previously collected paralarvae (and hopefully collect some myself!) to analyze the environmental conditions that affect the distribution of these young cephalopods.

WHY USF CMS?

I chose to join USF CMS because I was attracted to the diversity and volume of research being conducted at the college. Dr. Judkins’ research on cephalopods matched well with my research interests and just sounded so fascinating! I also talked to current CMS students during my graduate school search, and they all sounded so enthusiastic about their research, the college, and the St. Pete area, that I wanted to join them to see what it was all about.