People

Moving from Philadelphia, U.S.A. to Brisbane, Australia on a one-way ticket, Veronica began her Ph.D. at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, A/Prof. Sophie Dove, A/Prof. Gene Tyson, and Prof. Brian Fry (Griffith University).

Veronica’s interest in deep reefs was inspired by the research in the deep-sea ecology lab of Dr. Erik Cordes (Temple University), where she was a research assistant and lab manager since college graduation. Veronica graduated from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, U.S.A.) with a B.A. in Biology in 2012.

Veronica has a wide variety of research interests, from the shallow reefs where she can scuba dive to the proper deep sea. Her Ph.D. research is focused on understanding how the trophic ecology of shallow and deep corals may be influenced by oceanographic processes such as upwelling, which brings important nutrients to shallow waters. Such nutrient fluxes may be important to the coral holobiont, which can utilize both dissolved and particulate food sources. Veronica is interested in learning how the coral holobiont, including its associated microbial communities, may respond to natural nutrient fluxes in coral ecosystems.