Liyu Mekonnen Receives the 2024 Dr. Susan Lynn Williams Memorial Graduate Award

The Coastal and Marine Science Institute is pleased to announce the 2024 recipient of the Dr. Susan Lynn Williams Memorial Graduate Award: Liyu Mekonnen, a PhD student advised by Dr. Alyssa Griffin. Liyu will address carbon storage in the seagrass meadows of Tomales Bay, specifically quantifying seagrass meadows’ contributions to carbon sequestration through alkalinity production. 

She says "Understanding alkalinity-generating processes in blue carbon ecosystems is imperative to both preserving their ecological health and evaluating their true carbon capture potential under increasing anthropogenic emissions. I look forward to further resolving one of the many ways seagrass systems serve local communities of people and wildlife alike while carrying Dr. Williams’ passion for these marine flowering plants forward. This study will further elucidate the true carbon capture potential of these ecosystems, thus enriching advocacy efforts for meadow protection and restoration through both ecological and monetary frameworks.”

This award is named for Dr. Susan Lynn Williams, a distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis and an inspired proponent of marine education and ocean conservation. Susan’s legacy of pushing the boundaries of science and her dedication to unraveling the mysteries of marine ecology continue on through the Dr. Susan Lynn Williams Memorial Graduate Award Fund. Contributions to this fund bring support to the Bodega Marine Laboratory, and especially graduate students whose coastal research focuses on marine ecology.

Make a Gift to the Dr. Susan Lynn Williams Memorial Graduate Award