Way to go, Nicole!  Her MS thesis explored a novel mutualism between a native decorator worm and invasive seaweed and is to be submitted for publication shortly.  I will miss her wonderful presence in the lab tremendously.  Nicole is off to UC Davis this fall to start her PhD in the Center for Population Biology, advised by Dr. Jay Stachowicz.

Courtney is the only SeaGrant Knauss fellowship winner from the state of South Carolina this year (see all winners here). She will be interning in the executive branch starting in 2015. Huge props, Courtney!

Way to go, Courtney!  She won the College of Charleston Young Alumni Graduate Scholarship!  

We just heard the news that Alyssa Demko won a prestigious 3-year NSF predoctoral fellowship. Yay, Alyssa!

Our recently awarded NSF grant on Gracilaria was highlighted in an article in the Post and Courier.

The CofC Media Relations folks produced a summary of our laboratory, students and current research.  I think they did a nice job…check it out here!

A nice write-up of Stacy Krueger-Hadfield is up at the Grice Marine Lab blog.  Check it out!

The Western Society of Naturalists is the “west-coast Benthic Ecology Meeting,” and the Sotka lab was represented by Masters’ student Nicole Kollars, who gave a talk about the mutualism between a native decorator worm (Diopatra) and the invasive seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla.  Stacy Krueger-Hadfield went to talk about her former life with microalgal genetics, and she managed to collect a population of the invasive seaweed from Elkhorn Slough!

I gave a talk at the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. Thanks to Jeb Byers for setting this up, and I had a fantastic time meeting new folks and seeing old faces (esp. John Wares).

I really enjoyed visiting friends at University of Tennessee and giving a departmental seminar.  Thanks Jim Fordyce, for the invitation and hospitality!