#Scifund Round 3 is underway and each day I will highlight a new proposal from the Challenge to give you a more in-depth understanding of each participant and their research.
Today I present Brianna Blaud. Her research looks at the reproduction mechanism of the Black Abalone.
Tell us about yourself, where you are from, and where you see yourself going.
My name is Brianna Blaud and I’m a Master’s student at the University of Washington studying black abalone reproduction. I’m from Seattle, and although this will always be home, I love to travel and experience new places and things. I would love the opportunity to continue research studying black abalone in California after I earn my Master’s degree.
How did you get involved in your research project?
Although my love for marine biology began at a young age, I didn’t discover my passion for research until my first solo research project as an undergraduate at UW (University of Washington). After I earned my BS degree at UW, I worked as a fish biologist at NOAA, helping to protect endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead in Puget Sound. It was a rewarding job, and I loved my work, but I found myself missing the research I was always reading about, so I headed back to school. I fell into my project with black abalone, and find that the more I learn about this hardy species, the more I admire them!
Why is your research important to you? Why should others fund it?
Conservation biology has always stood out to me because of it’s relevance and need in our ever-changing environment. Black abalone are a huge part of California history. They are both culturally and commercially significant. The disease, withering syndrome, could have meant the extinction of the species, however the black abalone are still fighting to hold on and are even recovering in some areas. I want to find out why some areas are still struggling to maintain a handful of individuals while other areas are quadrupling in size each year. By funding my research, I’m hoping to extend the successful strategy across California, so instead of pockets of recovery, we could see a region-wide comeback.
Do you have a favorite story that came from working on your research project?
After a series of mishaps in the field, trying to get the details of each experimental run hammered out, the feeling when the first successful run went perfectly smoothly was indescribable. It’s not really a story with funny anecdotes, but I guess it’s my favorite feeling that came from working on my research project. The moment when everything comes together, makes sense, and works.
Editor’s note: This is a feeling all researchers can relate to. There is no greater feeling to me then the first successful run after many tries of failure. I’ve had this experience myself.
Why did you decide to particpate in the SciFund Challenge?
Funding struggles have sadly become a reality for many researchers and graduate students. When I started my project with black abalone, I lost a significant portion of my money. I had to get a part time job to support myself outside of school and have struggled to find financial aid for my experiments. After presenting my preliminary results at a conference, someone suggested I look at RocketHub as a tool to find donations, and a couple days later I received an email suggesting I join SciFund. It was fate!
What was the most difficult aspect of building your SciFund Proposal? What was your favorite?
The most difficult aspect of building my SciFund proposal was working on the video. I had a lot of creative ideas that I felt I couldn’t use because of copyright issues, and have never created a video before. It was a fun learning process though, and a tool I will definitely use in the future! My favorite aspect of this project just involved joining the SciFund group and community. SciFund has helped me fall in love with my project all over again. I went through a rough patch this summer where I was feeling uninspired and unmotivated. I was struggling with having lost funding, writing became a chore instead of a tool to organize my thoughts and express myself, and people asking about what I do became an annoyance with a cut-and-paste answer. SciFund inspired me to start a blog to communicate my project in greater detail to friends, family, and marine biology lovers (blackabaloneblog.wordpress.com ), and somewhere along the way, I started to get really excited again. I look forward to posting new blogs, am constantly looking for material to blog about, and share my project with everyone I see!
Tell us something random. Something funny. Something borrowed. Something blue.
Something random – Although fish spawn billions and billions of eggs in the ocean, only 1 in 1,000,000 survive to adulthood
Something funny – Handy guide to modern science: if it’s green or wriggles, it’s biology; if it stinks, it’s chemistry; if it doesn’t work, it’s physics
Something borrowed – Sailors seriously overestimated the size of the kraken
Something blue – A blue whales heart is the size of a Mini Cooper, their tongue weighs as much as an elephant, they produce sounds louder than a jet engine, and their spout is higher than a 3-story building.
What an inspiring story! Thanks for sharing your science Brianna! And to save you time from scrolling up, you can read about her project and contribute here.