2022 North Carolina Coastal Conference Poster Competition Winners Announced
Photo (from left to right): The deputy director of North Carolina Sea Grant and the Water Resources Research Institute, John Fear, Caroline Branan, Eve Eisemann, Elizabeth Farquhar, Kaitlyn Hudson, Lidsney Stevenson, Emily Corbitt, and NC Sea Grant and WRRI executive director Susan White.
The 2022 North Carolina Coastal Conference — a hybrid event hosted by North Carolina Sea Grant on November 7 and 8 — was widely attended by researchers, agency and business experts, community leaders, and students in the marine sciences, among many others.
“In particular, our Coastal Conference is an exciting opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their research,” notes Deputy Director John Fear. Students presented in concurrent sessions, in lightning talks and in an annual research poster competition.
“We would like to graciously thank our conference sponsors for helping support the student awards for the poster competition. As is the tradition, the students presented outstanding work,” Executive Director Susan White adds.
2022 Winners
1st place (tie): Emily Corbitt
Emily Corbitt tied for first place with her presentation “Occurrence and Distribution of Legacy and Replacement Per- and Poly- Fluoroalkyl Substances in Tidal Creeks of Southeastern North Carolina.” Corbitt is a master’s student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Marine Science, and she is co-advised by Lynn Leonard and Ralph Mead.
1st place (tie): Lindsey Stevenson
Lindsey Stevenson tied for first place for her poster “An Examination of Cold Tolerance in Halodule wrightii: Is There a Latitudinal Gradient from Florida to North Carolina, USA?” Stevenson is a master’s student in marine biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Marine Science working with Jessie Jarvis in the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab.
2nd place: Kaitlyn Hudson
Kaitlyn Hudson netted second place for her presentation “Production Economics of Black Sea Bass in a Recirculating Aquaculture System and Sensitivity to Genetically Induced Growth Increases and Alteration of Protein Source in Aquafeed.” Hudson is a master’s student in marine science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and a staff scientist in UNCW’s Aquaculture Lab. Learn more about UNCW’s black sea bass research supported by NC Sea Grant.
3rd place: Elizabeth Farquhar
Elizabeth Farquhar took home third place for her poster “The SEACOW: A Low-Cost Sensor for Exchange of Atmospheric CO2 with Water.” Farquhar is a master’s student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington working in Phil Bresnahan’s Coastal Ocean Applied Science & Technology Lab to build low-cost monitoring instrumentation.
Honorable mention: Caroline Branan
Caroline Branan received an honorable mention for her presentation “The Use of Drones in Quantifying Large Marine Debris Distribution in Microtidal Marshes.” Branan is a research technician at NC State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology and works in the Marine Ecology and Conservation lab under Dave Eggleston.
Honorable mention: Eve Eisemann
Eve Eisemann received an honorable mention for her presentation “Examining the Relationship Between Quantifiable Coastal Features and Washover on a Regional Scale.” Eisemann is pursuing her doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences.
“Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all the participants,” Fear notes.
Learn more about the North Carolina Coastal Conference and view session recordings when they become available on the conference webpage.
