University faculty and agency scientists at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) and Port Orford Field Station represent a wide range of research interests and specialties, covering deep sea, coastal and estuarine environments.
A listing of HMSC faculty mentors and potential REU projects follows below. Mentors accepting Summer REU interns are noted with an asterisk symbol next to their name (*). Be sure to list the faculty mentors and projects that interest you on your application.
While students work independently with their research mentors, there are numerous opportunities (orientation, weekly seminars, group field trips, social events) to interact with other scientists and students at the HMSC in Newport and other departments on the Corvallis campus.
For more information specific to the HMSC internships, please contact Itchung Cheung. For CEOAS internships, please contact Kaplan Yalcin.
| Mentor Name | Area of Interest |
|---|---|
| Cheryl Barnes | Marine spatial ecology, fisheries science, food web dynamics, and ecosystem-based management |
| Dawn Barlow | Animal behavior and spatial ecology |
| Bernarda Calla | Shellfish genomics |
| Tom Calvanese | Kelp forest restoration ecology |
| Robert Cowen | Fisheries oceanography |
| Scott Heppell | Fisheries and wildlife |
| Tom Hurst | Physiological ecology |
| Jessica A. Miller | Ecology |
| Kathleen O'Malley | Fisheries genetics and genomics |
| Rachael Orben | Seabird oceanography |
| Su Sponaugle | Marine fish ecology |
| Leigh Torres | Marine ecology/Gray whale foraging ecology |
Mentors
Dawn Barlow
Postdoctoral Fellow - Marine Mammal Institute
Animal behavior and spatial ecology
Dawn Barlow is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Marine Mammal Institute's Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Lab. Dawn’s research interests are in the ecology and conservation of marine mammals. In particular, she studies what drives when and where whales can be found and how their distribution overlaps with human activities, using tools such as spatial statistics, bioacoustics, and oceanography.
Intern Projects: Identify sei whale vocalizations in acoustic recordings collected off Oregon to document occurrence patterns (Mentors: Dawn Barlow, Leigh Torres)
Marine mammals rely on sound for communication, navigation, feeding, and reproduction. Therefore, an effective way to study these animals that live in areas often inaccessible to humans is through listening to their vocalizations, known as passive acoustic monitoring. We are seeking a motivated and detail-oriented student to identify sei whale calls in acoustic recordings collected off Oregon. Sei whales are rarely observed and often misidentified during boat-based surveys. We will therefore compare acoustic detections to visual sighting records to examine how often this endangered marine mammal may be present in Oregon waters but go undetected.
Cheryl Barnes*
Assistant Professor
Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station and Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences
Marine resource management and ecosystem-based fisheries management
The Integrative Marine Fisheries (IMF) Lab conducts scientific research to answer management-relevant questions. Much of our work focuses on better understanding population and community dynamics of groundfish species in the North Pacific. To do so, we rely on a combination of field sampling, lab-based research, and statistical modeling techniques. We also place considerable value on collaborating with academic and agency scientists, resource managers, and fishery stakeholders because of its benefit to both process and product. Some common research themes include: evaluating effects of spatial and temporal scales on ecological inferences, enhancing scientific lessons through cross-regional comparisons, and using multiple metrics to improve our understanding about processes of interest.
Intern Projects: We have opportunities for students to get involved in field-, lab-, and computer-based work to support stock assessments and ecosystem-based fisheries management. Research activities will promote the development of technical skills that are commonly used in marine fisheries science. These may involve scientific literature reviews, fieldwork (e.g., portside sampling, at sea surveys), collecting data in a laboratory setting (e.g., fish dissections, estimating growth or maturation rates, identifying prey), data recording/entry, database management, statistical analyses, coding in R, and developing outreach products.
Bernarda Calla*
Courtesy Appointment - Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, USDA-ARS Pacific Shellfish Breeding Center
Marine Molecular Geneticist
An ARS-USDA lab in the newly formed Pacific Shellfish Research Unit we are working on the genomics of oysters. Two main lines of research are reproduction and fecundity in Pacific oysters and oyster response to biotic and abiotic environmental stressors
Intern Projects: The intern will be testing clearance rates for different species of harfmful algae. The project involves culturing algae and expose oysters to those, genetics and genomics analysis will be performed on both the algae and the oyster.
Port Orford Field Station Manager/Oregon Kelp Alliance
Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and Kelp Forest Restoration Ecology
The Port Orford Field Station supports a variety of research areas in partnership with the Hatfield Marine Science Center. Areas of research include: gray whale foraging, juvenile fish recruitment in the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve, sea urchin and dulse co-culture and kelp forest restoration ecology through the Oregon Kelp Alliance (ORKA).
Intern Projects: Possible projects include sampling associated with juvenile recruitment at Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve, sea urchin and dulse co-culture, and kelp forest restoration ecology. Students interested or have experience in snorkeling, free diving, SCUBA training (AAUS preferred), handling fish samples, lab work and small vessel experience.
Robert Cowen
Professor and Director of OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center
Fisheries Oceanography
Under the direction of Su Sponaugle and Bob Cowen, the Plankton Ecology Lab is dedicated to studying the underlying physical and biological dynamics shaping planktonic distributions, especially those of larval fishes and their zooplankton prey. Plankton patchiness, the uneven spatial and temporal distribution of organisms in the ocean significantly influence the growth and survival of fish larvae. Read how the lab utilizes state of the art technologies as well as traditional techniques to study plankton distributions and dynamics.
Intern Projects:
- Participation in a major oceanographic cruise to sample the mesozooplankton and larval fish communities of the California Current.
- Assisting with field deployment of SMURFs (Standardized Monitoring Units for the Recruitment of Fishes) along the coast of Oregon to sample fishes settling to nearshore rocky reefs as well as the collection of new recruits to tidepools. This is part of an ongoing collaborative monitoring effort with ODFW to better understand population replenishment of nearshore fish inside and outside of marine reserves.
- Analysis of newly settled coastal Oregon fishes including taxonomic identification, length measurements, otolith (ear stone) dissections to obtain estimated of age and growth rates, and possible gut contents analysis.
Scott Heppell*
Associate Professor
Fisheries & Wildlife
Scott Heppell’s research interests are the physiological ecology of fishes, in particular how physiology, behavior, and life-history traits affect the interactions between fish populations, their respective fisheries, and the environment. He has worked on bluefin tuna on the Atlantic high seas, Mediterranean, and east coast of the United States, on groupers throughout the southeast Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico, on rockfish in Oregon and Alaska, and on trout, steelhead, and salmon in Japan and the high deserts of eastern Oregon and Northern Nevada. Scott collaborates with academic scientists, state and federal agencies, foreign agencies and universities, and commercial and recreational fishermen, working together to try and address issues related to the sustainability of marine and freshwater resources and their ecosystems.
Intern Projects: This summer we’ll be initiating a new research program to evaluate how estuary restoration efforts work toward rebuilding natural fish and invertebrate communities. This project will involve capturing and collecting species and community data, lab work for stable isotope and lipid analysis, aging fish using otoliths, identification of diet components, and processing for proximate analysis (energy content). These projects may require travel with a supervisor to Oregon estuaries and some work on boats. Having general field or laboratory skills is a bonus but not necessary; interns will receive project-specific training.
Tom Hurst
NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Behavioral Ecology Program
Research Fishery Biologist
Tom Hurst is a research fisheries biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program. Tom's research interests focus on the physiological ecology of fishes and how environmental variability affects the feeding, growth and survival of early life stages of marine fishes. For example, a recent study compared the depth distribution, light requirements for feeding and diets of three co-occurring flatfishes. Tom is particularly interested in the pervasive effects of temperature variation on fishes and communities. He recently completed a comprehensive review of the phenomenon of 'winter mortality' and is currently examining how temperature affects fish behavior, including schooling and vulnerability to predators. Species currently being researched are Pacific cod, walleye pollock, Arctic cod, northern rock sole and yellowfin sole.
Intern Project: The intern will conduct experimental study of yellowfin sole embryos and larvae as a in relation to environmental conditions such as temperature and pH.
Associate Professor (COMES)
Ecology
The Marine & Anadromous Fisheries Ecology lab studies how animals move throughout rivers and oceans and how that movement affects their growth and survival. Headed by Jessica Miller, researchers in the lab focus primarily on economically and ecologically important species, such as Pacific Cod and Chinook Salmon, as well as culturally important species, such as Pacific Lamprey and endemic Hawaiian stream gobies.
We combine field studies with laboratory work and analytical chemistry to address questions that can inform conservation and management strategies of our marine resources. Our research often relies on the examination of animal hard parts, including scales, otoliths, vertebrae, and shells. Referred to as "biogeochemical markers," these structures are rich stores of data about individuals that allow researchers to determine how environmental variation and climate change can affect the life histories of fish and invertebrates.
Intern Projects: A possible project focused on sampling within Yaquina Bay, a biological assessment. This is a developing idea for a proposal and the potential of an REU Team of interns to get preliminary data over the summer. REU projects would involve understanding environmental effects (e.g., temperature, prey, pH) on the early growth and survival of marine fishes. Interns would quantify the growth rates of larval fish raised under ocean acidification conditions in the laboratory or early growth rates of juvenile Pacific Cod collected from the Alaskan ecosystem. By comparing the growth of fish under stressful environmental conditions the interns will contribute to understanding how climate change poses a risk to marine ecosystems and the potential resilience of fish populations to these changes.
Rachael Orben*
Assistant Professor (Fisheries & Wildlife)
Marine Mammal Institute Affiliate Faculty
Rachael Orben is a marine ecologist with a background in field biology, biologging, and oceanography. She is interested in how individual marine animals interact with their environment through movement. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Seabird Oceanography Lab. The lab tackles research projects that range from long-term monitoring of seabirds at Yaquina Head, advancing monitoring methods for burrow nesting seabirds, developing biologging tags to measure oceanographic conditions, counting albatrosses from satellite imagery, and albatross-fisheries interactions.
Intern Projects: We are looking for an intern who is interested in a mix of field work and data processing and analysis. The REU Intern will assist with field work as part of the long-term monitoring of seabirds at Yaquina Head. This work requires early mornings and involves following nests of cormorants and murres from egg lay to chick fledging. The intern project will be based on a portion of this long-term dataset and require an interest in R coding for data analysis.
Kathleen O'Malley
Associate Professor, State Fisheries Geneticist (Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences)
Fisheries Genetics and Genomics
Kathleen O'Malley is the State Fisheries Geneticist and directs the State Fisheries Genomics Lab which is located at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Kathleen's lab conducts genetics research on marine, anadromous and freshwater fishes. The information generated is used by the scientific and management communities. Check out her lab website to learn more about the ongoing research.
Intern Projects: Environmental DNA (eDNA) assays and invasive species detection for conservation and management.
Su Sponaugle*
Professor (OSU Department of Integrative Biology)
Marine Fish Ecology
OSU's Plankton Ecology Laboratory conducts basic and applied research on the ecology of marine fishes and the dynamics of their early life history stages in the plankton. We are especially interested in the processes underlying the growth, survival, and dispersal of early life stages, leading to successful recruitment to adult populations. How do fish larvae forage successfully in patchy oceanic environments while simultaneously avoiding being consumed themselves?
Our research questions explore a variety of systems from tropical coral reefs to temperate estuaries and rocky reefs. Our most current work couples fine-scale plankton imaging with biological collections to investigate larval fish growth and survival in the context of their pelagic surroundings. What processes contribute to larval fish survival and successful population replenishment? Our overarching goal is to better understand the events occurring during the pelagic larval stage that influence population replenishment and connectivity. Ultimately, we intend to not only advance ecology and oceanography but also help forecast patterns of population replenishment in light of ongoing environmental changes.
Please see our lab website!
Intern Projects: Example projects could include: Examination of size distributions of fish larvae across space and time; Comparison of larval fish sizes between an in-situ imaging system and collected specimens
Leigh Torres*
Associate Professor - Marine Mammal Institute
Marine Ecology/Gray Whale Foraging Ecology
Leigh Torres is a marine ecologist interested in understanding how marine animals, including marine mammals, seabirds and sharks, use their environment in the context of behavior, space and time. Leigh’s research explores how marine predators find prey within highly patchy, variable marine ecosystems. Much of this work is directed toward improving conservation management of protected or threatened species. Leigh’s work spans multiple spatial and temporal scales and occurs in many ecosystems including estuaries of Florida, near and offshore waters of the US and Latin America, pelagic regions of the Southern Ocean, and sub-Antarctic islands and coastal waters of New Zealand. Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna (GEMM) Laboratory and projects
Intern Projects:
SAPPHIRE (co-mentoered by Nicole Principe, Dawn Barlow, KC Bierlich) - Entirely onsite, strongly preferred.
The GEMM Lab is conducting a project called SAPPHIRE, which stands of the Synthesis of Acoustics, Physiology, Prey, and Habitat in a Rapidly changing Environment. The goal of SAPPHIRE is to identify and describe the impacts of environmental variation on the physiology of a crucial marine prey species (krill) and its predator, the blue whale. We are conducting our second field season researching blue whales in New Zealand in February 2025, where we will collect photographic data of blue whales for individual identification and pair these data with photogrammetry measurements from drone imagery to calculate body condition and length. We are seeking an organized and motivated student with attention to detail to conduct blue whale photo-ID and photogrammetry measurements. These data will be used to update population abundance estimates and to assess the overall population health (based on body condition). The student will gain experience in data management, learn how to perform photo-identification and photogrammetric measurements, and generally learn about blue whale ecology, abundance, and health. Read more about the SAPPHIRE.
TOPAZ/JASPER (Co-mentored by Celest Sorrentino); Entirely Onsite
This intern will split their time between the Hatfield campus in Newport (first 4 weeks of the program) and the OSU Port Orford Field Station on the Oregon south coast (next 6 weeks). While at Hatfield, the intern will analyze gray whale mother-calf association data derived from the GRANITE project. While at the Port Orford Field Station, the intern will participate in the 11th year of our integrated TOPAZ/JASPER program, which is an exciting hands-on experiential learning internship where a 5-person field team collects data on gray whale foraging ecology and zooplankton availability. We are seeking a motivated, enthusiastic, collaborative student to join our team for the summer. The intern will gain knowledge on gray whale ecology and behavior, data management, R coding, data collection and field skills, and science communication. Read more about the TOPAZ, JASPER and GRANITE projects.