Michael received his bachelor’s degree in Marine
Biology in May 2015 from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. There he
participated in a wide variety of research and experiences from
productivity of phytoplankton in the surf zone to functional morphology of
blubber Cetaceans. However he decided that his main interest was with coral
reef sessile organism (his favorite
being sponges!) so most of his time was spent studying the chemical
ecology of sponges, from which he completed an honors thesis
examining palatable sponges use of associational refugia in the presence
and absence of predators. Michael also received an NSF-REU internship at
the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science where he studied coral physiology
under changing environmental conditions. He came to KAUST in May 2015 as
an intern, after which he decided to return as a Master's student in
2016. During his internship he helped examine the microbial community
of sponges in a small geographical range in the Red Sea as well as the
biodiversity of benthic sessile organisms. Now as a Masters student he wishes
to continue to study sponge ecology on reefs and also start looking into
taxonomy of Red Sea sponges.
Michael's broad research interests are the ecology and
physiology of sessile coral reef invertebrates (sponges and coral), how climate
change is affecting them, and more recently in taxonomy.