Lauren
grew up on the coast of South Carolina surfing and
diving so she always loved and respected the ocean.
Even as a young child, Lauren can't remember wanting
to be anything other than a marine biologist. It was
watching people come to the beaches that she called
her backyard and leave all their trash behind that
made her realize she had a deep passion for marine
conservation.
Lauren attended Clemson University in South Carolina
and obtained her B.S. in Conservation Biology in May
2016. At Clemson, Lauren's passion for environmental
activism thrived through being president of EcoReps,
the on-campus organization dedicated to sustainability,
being an involved member of the Sierra Club, and establishing
her own non-profit Pelican's Belly. Pelican's Belly
has been an exciting opportunity for Lauren because
it has allowed her to address the growing concern
of marine debris in her own community. She works to
establish on-going, sustainable beach cleanups in
coastal communities as well as educate the locals
and visitors to take ownership of their surroundings.
Lauren
did undergraduate research through Clemson University
with her field site being in the Florida Keys. Her
research took place in Dr. Michael Childress's Conservation
of Marine Resources lab, where she worked for two
years contributing to research on Caribbean spiny
lobsters social behavior and parrotfish diet. In her
second year she was given an independent project where
she focused on parrotfish territoriality and how these
behavioral interactions could impact the coral reef
system in the Middle Florida Keys. She gave poster
presentations of her research at a variety of conferences
in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and won third
place for her presentation at the Clemson Biological
Sciences Annual Student Symposium. Lauren also presented
a talk in March 2016 at the Southeastern Ecology and
Evolution conference in Tallahassee, FL on her research
with parrotfish territoriality.
While she loved doing research on parrotfish and coral,
Lauren always knew her passion was in studying marine
debris, particularly the impact marine debris has
on wildlife. After looking for graduate programs,
she came across a paper written by Dr. Hyrenbach about
plastic ingestion in marine birds and was immediately
hooked. It didn't take long for her to realize the
goals of the Pelagicos lab aligned directly with what
she is interested in.
Her research focuses on the diet, plastic ingestion
and the potential effects of this pollution on Bonin
Petrels from Midway Atoll, NW Hawaiian Islands.
Lauren
defended her thesis on November 2019:
