By Cindie Powell

The Texas Sea Grant College Program at Texas A&M University has awarded $5,700 in research grants to six undergraduate students at the main campus in College Station and Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG).

The students are funded as part of the Texas Sea Grant Scholars Undergraduate Research Program, which designates Texas Sea Grant Scholars from among those who are selected for the LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Recipients receive up to an additional $1,000 from Texas Sea Grant to supplement their research budgets.

The goal of the program is to encourage motivated undergraduate students to participate in research, and to give them the opportunity to communicate their findings as principal authors to the university’s scholarly community.

The 2017-18 Texas Sea Grant Scholars Program recipients, along with their respective fields of study, institutions and projects, are listed below:

• Faith Kramer, Environmental Studies, Texas A&M University, “Deep sea Corrallium sp. in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands basal diameter-colony height curve and colony height-age curve.”
• Laura Leonard, Marine Biology, TAMUG, “Dissolved organic matter cycling following a major flooding event in Galveston Bay, Texas.”
• Naomi Mathew, Marine Biology, TAMUG, “Biodiversity of the Class Scyphozoa in the Gulf of Mexico.”
• Thomas Page, Marine Biology, TAMUG, “Feeding ecology of sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus) in the northwest Gulf of Mexico.”
• William Prouse, Offshore and Coastal Systems, TAMUG, “Vegetative nullification for aerial photogrammetry.”
• Taylor Strope, Marine Biology, TAMUG, “The effects of Hurricane Harvey on the biodiversity and abundance of hydromedusae in Galveston Bay.”