Jaclyn did a great job defending her master thesis on the microbiome of the coral killer ascidian Trididemnum solidum on Wednesday April 16!

Congrats Lindsey on the successful defense of your Honors thesis on Monday, April 7! Great job!

Brenna, Jaclyn, Patrick and Susanna attended the 52th Benthic Ecology Meeting in Mobile, AL April 2nd to the 5th, 2025!
Brenna presented another chapter of her PhD thesis and Jaclyn presented her master results. Grace Kennedy from the Tolar Lab also presented on sea-squirts and their archaeal symbionts. It was great to reconnect with colleagues and friends from all over the USA!

Wishing you all a peaceful and well deserved break. See you in 2005!

This semester the iMESA Lab had a lot to celebrate!
- Eden, a PhD student at Dr. Posey's lab but who spent several semesters at the iMESA Lab doing permit fish population genetics graduated. Congratulations Dr. Garcia!
- Our DIS student Julia Depuis graduated with a Bachelor's in Marine Biology, yeayh Julia!
- Susanna had the honor to carry the banner for the College of Science and Engineering!

The iMESA Lab and colleagues, Drs. Tolar, Kiser, Ushijima, Rhodes, and Frampton organized this year's NC American Society for Microbiology meeting at UNCW Center for Marine Science on October 12, 2024.
We welcomed 125 attendees from all over the state and enjoyed a fantastic plenary lecture by Dr. Anne Thompson, as well as numerous outstanding oral and poster presentations!

Another UNCW Center for Marine Science Open House event is on the books! This year we had 1022 attendees walk around the different booths and learn about the many different research programs at the Center!

The 2nd Ascidian Taxonomy Workshop was held at Coastal Carolina University from June 24 to 28, 2024 and was funded by NSF DEB-2122475.
Eleven ascidian taxonomist in-training  from 7 countries attended the event, including iMESA Lab members Brenna Hutchings and Jaclyn Levine!
The workshop was taught and lead by Drs. Stefaniak (CCU), Nydam (SOKA) and Lopez-Legentil (UNCW, iMESA Lab).

Today was a very special day for several iMESAns: CONGRATULATIONS to our Honor students Taryn and Grace, our DIS Paul, and our new Master Brandon!
We got to celebrate their achievements twice: This morning during the Honors College Medallion Ceremony, and this afternoon, during the Department of Biology and Marine Biology Graduation Ceremony! CONGRATULATIONS iM...SEA HAWKS!