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. 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 |
| Tamara Baumberger | Submarine Volcanoes, hydrothermal vent systems and methane seeps |
| John Chapman | Biology, population dynamics and ecology of the native blue mud shrimp |
| Taylor Chapple | Sharks and large marine predators |
| Ford Evans | Sustainable aquaculture |
| Samuel Gurr | Aquaculture |
| Scott Heppell | Fisheries and wildlife |
| Kathleen Hunt | Marine mammals biomarkers |
| Jessica Miller | Ecology, Fisheries and Shifting Ecosystems |
| Kathleen O'Malley | Fisheries genetics and genomics |
| Rachael Orben | Seabird oceanography |
| Emily Slesinger | Fish Biology |
| Kate Stafford | Acoustic monitoring of marine mammals |
| Leigh Torres | Marine ecology/Gray whale foraging ecology |
Mentors
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 main objective of the Integrated Marine Fisheries (IMF) Lab is to conduct scientific research that informs marine resource management. Much of our work focuses on better understanding population and community dynamics of groundfish in the North Pacific. To do so, we rely on 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 the benefits they offer to both process and product. Individual projects are specifically designed to inform stock assessments and/or support ecosystem-based fisheries management. Some common research themes: 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. Check out our lab website for more information.
Intern Projects: The Integrated Marine Fisheries Lab has opportunities for students to get involved in one of two projects. One involves conducting scientific literature reviews and conducting analyses (e.g., in R) related to a climate vulnerability assessment for the Gulf of Alaska. The other focuses on field- and/or lab-based data collection to promote more informed management in Oregon and throughout the North Pacific Ocean. All research activities will promote professional development in marine fisheries science.
Tamara Baumberger, Assistant Professor, College of Earth, Ocean, Atmospheric Sciences, Geology and Geophysics
Submarine volcanoes, hydrothermal vest systems, methane seeps
Our research group is studying gases released from submarine volcanoes, hydrothermal vent systems and methane seeps from a variety of sites around the world. Our primary focus are noble gases and we investigate their effect on the overlying water column at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
Intern Project: We are looking for an REU intern who is interested in conducting laboratory work in the Helium Isotope Laboratory. The intern will extract helium from seawater samples collected in the Southern Ocean and assist with analyzing them on the mass spectrometer to identify hydrothermal signals and use it as a tracer for nutrient transport from the deep to the surface waters.
John Chapman, Courtesy Faculty, Dept. of Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences, College of Agricultural Sciences
Aquatic Biological Invasions
The Chapman invasion research lab has focused primarily on the biology, population dynamics and ecology of the native blue mud shrimp, Upogebia pugettensis, and its introduced Asian parasite, Orthione griffenis. O. griffenis appears to be driving U. pugettensis, its only North American host, to extinction throughout its range. This research is devoted to the conservation of the blue mud shrimp.
Intern Project: The anticipated summer 2026 project is to make resin casts of the shrimp burrows as part of a larger effort to measure the ecological effects of U. pugettensis in estuaries. Although the massive U. pugettensis burrow ecosystems appear to be as massive and biologically dominant in northeastern Pacific estuaries as coral reefs are in tropical ecosystems, they are below the sediment surface where they are all but unknown. A permanent display of these casts has been prepared for the HMSC Visitor Center (HMSCVC) to increase public awareness of this problem. This summer project will contribute to the resolution of that system and contribute to the HMSC Visitor Center display.
Taylor Chapple, Associate Professor, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Big Fish Lab
Sharks and large marine predators
In the Chapple Big Fish Lab (BFL), we study sharks and other large marine predators around the world, focusing on their movements, behaviors and population dynamics. From South Africa to Australia to California, using state-of-the-art technology and techniques, we sample and electronically tag animals to gain insights into their lives when we aren’t there to observe them. In Oregon, we leverage partnerships with industry, management, science and local communities to study the sharks off our coasts to better understand the roles these animals play in our marine ecosystems and economies. Relatively little is known about how sharks affect our coastal ecosystems and communities in the Pacific Northwest, but here in the Chapple Big Fish Lab, we are changing that.
Intern Project: Research projects in the BFL span field and laboratory opportunities understanding the role of sharks in our oceans. REU student(s) will work with the lab team conducting field surveys and sample collection of sharks and process stable isotope, hormone and other samples in the lab. This project is a mix of opportunities and skill development.
Ford Evans, Senior Research Associate, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station.
Sustainable Aquaculture
Ford Evans is a Senior Research Associate at Oregon State University’s Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station in Newport, Oregon, where his research focuses on sustainable aquaculture of low-trophic marine species. He investigates the intensification of red seaweed (e.g., Devaleraea mollis) production in both land-based and nearshore environments, the use of seaweed and formulated diets to enhance gonad development in Purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), and the prevalence and pathogenesis of Ostreid Herpesvirus 1 (OsHV-1) in Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) at commercial farms along the U.S. West Coast. Dr. Evans integrates applied science with community-engaged scholarship, emphasizing partnerships with industry, local government agencies, and non-governmental organizations to ensure that research outcomes are both rigorous and actionable.
Intern Projects: The REU intern can choose one of two focus areas (both conducted at HMSC).
1. Land-based Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA). Sustainable enhancement of barren-sourced purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) roe in land-based tanks, requires effective management of solid and dissolved waste streams. This project looks at the feasibility of adding California sea cucumbers (Apostichopus californicus) and the red seaweed, Pacific dulse (Devaleraea mollis), to sea urchin fattening systems to not only utilize waste streams, but also provide secondary, high-value crops.
2. Year-round macroalgal production in the Pacific Northwest is limited by low direct sunlight, frequent cloudy weather, and short day-length during winter months. This project examines how supplemental illumination can be used to alter photoperiod, light intensity, and wavelength to increase productivity and biochemistry of Pacific dulse (D. mollis) raised in land-based tanks.
Samuel Gurr, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station.
Aquaculture
Our lab's focus is to develop hatchery interventions that bolster production and forecast later success. We employ an integrative approach (i.e. functional genomics and phenomics) and ‘rules of life’ principles to tackle urgent challenges facing farms and fisheries. A pillar the Gurr Lab is to define mechanisms underpinning resistance conferred by reprogramming during early development. A hormetic, dose-dependent framework, presents an inducible means to increase tolerance, especially as coastal systems are critical for industry yet change faster than the global average. Our immediate goals are in direct collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Pacific Oyster Genomic Selection to modernize how breeding values are estimated (i.e., via hormesis and cross-tolerance, and high-throughput phenomics) and improve returns for growers. We continue to work with both domestic and international breeding centers, developing innovative and applicable tools to enhance seafood production.
Intern Project: Investigate a scalable, affordable, and high-throughput assay in oyster spat to identify traits that predict performance in challenging environments. The REU intern will run experiments in flow-through seawater systems, conduct laboratory benchwork, and assist data analysis/visualization.
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, international agencies and universities, and commercial and recreational fishermen, working together to try to address issues related to the sustainability of marine and freshwater resources and their ecosystems.
Intern Projects: This summer we’ll be running two primary projects that work in tandem: (1) Evaluate how estuary restoration efforts work toward rebuilding natural fish and invertebrate communities, which involves 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), and (2) Monitoring kelp forest communities, which involves supporting scuba surveys, collecting eDNA samples, and stereo video analysis. These projects may require travel with a supervisor and some work on boats. Having general field or laboratory skills is a bonus but not necessary; interns will receive project-specific training.
Kathleen Hunt, Associate Professor, Marine Mammal Institute
Marine mammal biomarkers
Dr. Kathleen Hunt is an endocrinologist and ecophysiologist who is a new Associate Professor at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Insitute. From a diverse background of stress hormone and reproduction hormone research in birds, bears, and elephants, she now works primarily on marine mammals, with active projects on walrus, narwhal, beluga, and numerous baleen whales including gray, blue, fin, bowhead, and several species of right whale. Most of her research involves measuring stress hormones and reproductive hormones, including developing new laboratory assays to measure these hormones (and other biomarkers) in what she lovingly calls the "weird samples" - whale baleen, respiratory vapor, seal claw, even feces, and more. This approach enables Dr. Hunt and her students to study living aniamls without disturbing them (feces, respiratory vapor) and also study populations from the past (e.g. from museum collections of baleen).
Intern Project: Dr. Hunt is currently seeking research undergraduates who are interested in learning hormone assays from the ground up (specifically, enzyme immunoassays, aka ELISAs), helping her set up a brand-new assay lab at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, and/or assisting in current baleen-hormone projects or developing their own projects. All work will be lab-based and will occur in Newport.
Jessica Miller, Associate Professor, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Marine & Anadromous Fisheries Ecology Lab
Ecology, Fisheries and Shifting Ecosystems
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.
Intern Project: Oregon coastal coho salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act. To document population trajectories, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (our state management agency) maintains a Life Cycle Monitoring Program, which samples juvenile and adult coho at various locations along the coast. This REU project will help address questions related to juvenile coho growth and movement within the Yaquina River system to better understand early life history and contribute to conservation and management activities. Project includes collaboration with state biologists as well as OSU faculty and graduate students.
Rachael Orben
Associate Professor (Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Biology)
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 to advancing monitoring methods for burrow-nesting seabirds, developing biologging tags to measure oceanographic conditions, counting albatrosses from satellite imagery, and examining albatross-fisheries interactions.
Intern Project: 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 and Depoe Bay. 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: Use environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to assess species diversity and distribution in the Yaquina River/Bay.
Emily Slesinger, Research Fish Biologist, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NMFS, NOAA
Fish Biology
Emily Slesinger studies the effects of environmental stressors on commercially important fish species from Alaska. Her team focuses on studies looking at the effects of ocean warming and ocean acidification, as well as focusing on the early life stages of fishes, as these tend to be the most vulnerable. They measure a variety of responses in the lab including physiological to reproductive responses. Our main goal is to identify how environmental stressors affect fish populations to provide insight for management under future ocean conditions.
Intern Project: This summer, we are looking for an intern to help determine the protocol for rearing yellowfin sole larvae. Yellowfin sole are a flatfish found in Alaska and support the largest flatfish fishery in the world. We have run experiments on eggs and yolk-sac larvae, but have been unable to continue the experiments into older larval stages because we do not know how to feed them yet. The goal of this project will be to try a variety of aquaculture techniques to properly rear yellowfin sole larvae. This project is a critical step in understanding yellowfin sole husbandry, which is needed for us to continue our studies on the effects of environmental stressors on yellowfin sole.
Kate Stafford, Associate Professor - Marine Mammal Institute
Acoustic monitoring of marine mammals
The Marine Mammal Bioacoustics and Ecology Lab (MMBEL) uses passive acoustic monitoring to eavesdrop on vocalizing marine mammals and understand spatiotemporal presence and behavior, as well as human-caused threats.
Intern Project: Studying marine mammal occurrence using acoustic data: bowheads, blue whales, humpbacks. The species will be up to the student based on their interest. The opportunity to undertake field work is unrelated to the research project but will give the student the opportunity to help with a killer whale acoustics project involving recovering and redeploying moorings off the coast of Washington State
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: 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. A central objective of SAPPHIRE is to understand how oceanographic processes, particularly upwelling, shape krill availability and influence blue whale distribution, behavior, and health. In February 2026, we will conduct our final field season studying blue whales in New Zealand. Field efforts focus on collecting data on blue whale occurrence, health, and behavior, alongside data collection on krill and environmental conditions. These observations will be integrated with remotely sensed sea surface temperature data to characterize upwelling dynamics within the study region.
We are seeking a motivated and diligent student to assist with the remote sensing component of this work aimed at identifying and tracking upwelling events through time in our study system. This analysis will contribute to understanding how oceanographic conditions are changing and how those changes might affect krill-whale dynamics. The student will gain hands-on experience in data management, accessing and analyzing remote sensing datasets, and interpreting oceanographic processes in the context of climate change and blue whale and krill ecology. Read more about the SAPPHIRE project.
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's data for the REU project will be derived from the TOPAZ project. While at the Port Orford Field Station, the intern will participate in the 12th 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. The intern must be comfortable with daily boat work and residence in a beautiful remote area off the coast of Oregon (Port Orford). Interested applicants are encouraged to read more about the TOPAZ and JASPER projects.