Blog

At the Bodega Marine Laboratory and CMSI, we couldn’t be more honored and humbled to have Dr. Susan Williams a part of our community for so long. On the 26th of October, over 180 people from around the world gathered to celebrate the life of Dr. Williams.  

“I wanted to be an oceanographer since second grade, without understanding what that meant other than being fascinated by "things" that washed up on the beach during seaside family vacations.” - Dr. Susan Williams in her CMSI Spotlight.

I took in a deep breath then let it out quickly as I approached the group of middle schoolers gathered around a single desk.

I blurted out, “Apa kabar?” One of my few memorized Bahasa Indonesia greetings.

Half a dozen young faces turned towards me.  There was a brief pause before they shrilly responded,

“Biiiiiaaak!!” and promptly collapsed into a pile of laughter.

Under the unseasonably warm June sun with the Seattle Space Needle as our reference point, Dr. Jamey Selleck and I don our thick wetsuits. The air may be warm, but the water is still frigid. Our small boat bobs in the water as our captain, Brian Allen, scans our surroundings.

“Nothing.” He remarks with resignation.

We sigh, finish connecting our hoses and checking our gauges, then plunge into the icy water.

In the third grade, few of us knew what we wanted to spend our life doing. For Aaron Ninowaka, he knew it involved understanding fish behavior which, as a ten-year-old, he hoped would equate to catching more fish. Over time, his love of fishing guided him through two degrees from Cal State Fullerton; a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Chemistry and a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences.

Dr. Howard Spero is currently a Professor at UC Davis. He was in charge of paleoceanography research during his time as Program Director at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC from 2006-2008. In 2013, he won the UC Davis research lecturer award and became a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2014. 

Brittany Jellison is a PhD student in Ecology in the College of Biological Sciences at Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory. Her research focuses on marine ecology, global change ecology, species interactions, ocean acidification, and animal behavior. 

Shay O'Farrell, who hails from Ireland, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy. His work focuses on movement tracking data to understand how and why people and animals choose to go where they go.

Woutrina Smith is an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. 

Jay Stachowicz is a Professor of Evolution and Ecology and studies biodiversity among marine ecosystems.

John Largier is a Professor at the Bodega Marine Laboratory and an environmental oceanographer who is interested in ocean connectivity.