CSUMB students also gather top honors during SACNAS conference

Not to be outdone by their Hartnell peers, CSU Monterey Bay students took first and second places during the recent conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

SACNAS is a 40-year-old nonprofit organization that fosters Hispanic/Chicano and Native American scientists from college students to professionals.

The annual conference showcases work aimed at fostering scientists from Latino and Native American backgrounds, who are often underrepresented in the sciences.

CSUMB was represented by 15 undergraduates, four graduate students and four students from other schools who were part of last summer’s Monterey Bay Regional Ocean Science Research Experience for Undergraduates based at CSUMB. They presented research posters in ecology and evolution, general biology and marine biology.

Awardees were:

• Alison Aceves, marine science major, took first place in ecology and evolution. She spent last summer working at the Hatfield Marine Science Center at Oregon State University, studying host-parasite interactions of salmon in the Columbia River.

• Emily King, marine science major, took second place in marine biology. She also spent the summer at the Hatfield Center, researching larval fish behavior.

• Briana Becerra, biology major, took second place in ecology and evolution. She spent the summer at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, researching forest ecology

• Danielle Perry, a participant in last summer’s Ocean Science REU at CSUMB and a student at the University of New Haven, took first place in marine biology. She spent the summer working at Elkhorn Slough.

“The conference attendees I spoke with were highly complimentary of our students in how they presented their research, the quality of their work and their overall professionalism at the conference,” Corey Garza, associate professor in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy told the Cal State Monterey Bay News.