Written by: Sean Beckwith PhD student
ST. PETERSBURG, FL – A student of geological oceanography at the College of Marine Science, Theresa King, was chosen to represent USF at the 5th Annual Statewide Graduate Student Research Symposium in Tallahassee on April 20, 2018 for her winning poster entitled “Antarctica in Hot Water: Employing a Suite of Archives and Techniques to Understand the Melting Continent.”
One of two winners in the category for Natural and Physical Sciences at the USF Graduate Student Symposium, Theresa’s poster and presentation focused on the importance of understanding past interactions of warm waters and Antarctic ice shelves in terms of changes in sea level. To meet the challenge of presenting among a broad group of contestants to judges of various disciplines, she decided to include a brief background of where she works and why her research is important. Also, as it is difficult for people living in Florida to sense a connection with changing conditions in Antarctica, she discussed some of the impacts of sea-level rise on low-lying communities like the Tampa Bay area. Making sure to get her point across, Theresa refrained from getting bogged down in specific methods and, instead, explained her results and future work in the context of achieving a better understanding of Antarctic contributions to sea level.
Theresa “really enjoyed being able to talk with other grad students about their research, and it was really interesting to learn about work outside of [the] marine science ‘bubble.’” Beyond the bubble, presentations of the attendees ranged from virtually recreating Medieval Spain to the medicinal properties of deep sea corals.