Katey Lesneski, Ph.D. candidate co-advised by Dr. John Finnerty and Dr. Les Kaufman, was recently selected as a runner up for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) Foundation’s 2017 Doctoral Scholarship which comes with a $1500 award. The AAUS consists of over 130 organizational members and produces consensual standards for the training and certification of scientific divers and the operation of scientific diving programs.
In addition to this award, Oceans of Opportunity (OO), has offered to match 50% of the AAUS scholarship. OO is a 501(c)3 not for profit organization, whose mission is to evolve the art and science of the life aquatic through effective communications and inspired social change.
These funds will be used exclusively for Katey’s research in Belize. Her research concerns the resilience of stag horn coral, a major framework building coral in the Caribbean, whose future is threatened by climate change and other anthropogenic insults. For the last two years, she has been the teaching fellow in Phil Lobel’s Scientific Diving course and Les Kaufman’s Coral Reef Resilience and Restoration course.