Alumni Take Gold Ribbon for Excellence at Science Conference

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Melissa Steinman and Rebecca Davis, May 2006 bachelor’s degree graduates of Florida Institute of Technology, have earned a gold ribbon for
work they conducted while finishing their degrees. They took home the Gold Ribbon for Excellent Poster at the Sigma Xi annual conference in Detroit, Mich.,
held in November. Sigma Xi is a scientific research society.
The poster was on the duo’s research into the clam Mercenaria mercenaria under faculty member Kevin Johnson, assistant professor of oceanography. They
studied whether or not the larvae of the clams would delay settling in the water column in the presence of a predator. Their studies showed that larvae
sense the chemicals given off by predators.
Steinman is currently on a research cruise with a NASA astrobiology team collecting sediment cores in the South Pacific. Davis works for the Naval
Oceanographic Office in Mississippi.
The two also founded a non-profit organization, A-B-Sea Foundation. Their foundation’s goal is to bring science studies to children who are geographically
or culturally isolated and where limited educational resources exist. The two brought educational materials to military and civilian dependents at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last spring and plan a similar trip in the near future to a remote Alaskan island.