Expanding access to marine research
Eleanor Caves will expand Brown University Discovery in Diving (BUDDi), a program designed to make marine research training more accessible to undergraduates.
Expanding access to marine research
Eleanor Caves will expand Brown University Discovery in Diving (BUDDi), a program designed to make marine research training more accessible to undergraduates.
Assistant Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology Eleanor Caves will expand Brown University Discovery in Diving (BUDDi), a program designed to make marine research training more accessible to undergraduates.*
About the IBES Catalyst Research Awards
These annual awards provide funding for faculty-led, solutions-driven environmental research that crosses disciplines and has the potential for meaningful societal impact.
Specialized SCUBA certification, equipment, and training can create significant financial and logistical barriers for students interested in marine science; BUDDi helps address those barriers through swimming preparation, SCUBA and scientific diving certification, peer mentorship, and paid research experience. Two Brown undergraduates will progress through the program before joining the Caves Lab at its field site in Curaçao, where they will conduct a mark-recapture study of cleaner shrimp to investigate how ecologically important coral reef mutualisms may respond to warming conditions.
Marine field research requires specialized skills that students often don’t have an accessible pathway to acquire. BUDDi is designed to remove those barriers and give students the training, confidence, and research experience they need to see themselves as marine scientists.
*This award is supported by IBES' Student Transformative Engagement Pathways program.