UH Hilo students bring home major awards from UH System marine symposium

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Bryant Grady won Best Research Presentation, which has been won by UH Hilo Marine Option Program students for 26 of the past 31 years.

By Susan Enright.

Group standing: Matthew Connelly, Clara Smith, Michaela Setzer, Aliona Megedyuk, Mia Lamirand, Bryant Grady, Alexandra Runyan, Jon Ehrenberg, and Lisa Parr.
UH Hilo MOP team at the marine science competition, left to right, Matthew Connelly, Clara Smith, Michaela Setzer, Aliona Megedyuk, Mia Lamirand, Bryant Grady, Alexandra Runyan, Jon Ehrenberg, and Lisa Parr, April 6, 2019. Photo by Jeff Kuwabara/UH Mānoa MOP.

Seven students from the Marine Option Program (MOP) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo presented at the statewide MOP Student Symposium held this past weekend on Maui. Bryant Grady won Best Research Presentation, which has been won by UH Hilo Marine Option Program students for 26 of the past 31 years.

“They are outstanding representatives of UH Hilo,” says Lisa Parr, MOP coordinator and instructor of marine science. Lecturer Jennifer Sims and Educational Specialist Matthew Connelly also serve as UH Hilo MOP coordinators.

Awards

  • Bryant Grady won Best Research Presentation for his research project entitled “The Impacts of Habitat Complexity on Reef Fish Ecology.”
  • Alexa Runyan won the Pacon Award for the project involving the best use of technology, with a Pacific focus, for her project, “Creating Three-Dimensional Models of Coral Reefs at Papahānoumokuākea Marine National Monument Using Structure-From-Motion Software.”

More Presentations


Above, Mia Lamirand’s presentation, “Audio-Visual Promotional Video of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Marine Science Department and Marine Option Program.”

Five additional UH Hilo students also presented at the symposium. “The students presented excellent projects in a very competitive field,” says Parr.

  • Jon Ehrenberg presented his project, “Steps Towards Establishing a Coral Nursery: Baby Steps.”
  • Mia Lamirand debuted her “Audio-Visual Promotional Video of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Marine Science Department and Marine Option Program.”
  • Aliona Megedyuk presented on her internship, “Temporal Variation in Recruitment and Condition of Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys Marmoratus) Along the Oregon Coast.”
  • Michaela Setzer presented on her internship with The Nature Conservancy, “Water Quality and Spatial Dynamics at the Mauna Lani Coral Reef and Fishponds.”
  • Clara Smith presented the results of her summer internship, “Mapping Metal Contaminants with Mangrove Leaves in Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico.”

About the writer of this story: Susan Enright is a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.

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