Outreach
Media
The Mission
Our team of 30 scientists who study the biology of marine invertebrate animals (i.e., animals without backbones) and microbes will board the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer in Lyttleton, New Zealand on 4 March 2023 and embark on a two-month voyage to Antarctica ending in Capetown, South Africa on 3 May 2023. During the expedition, we will sample and study marine invertebrates and microbes living in some of the most remote but fastest changing seas on the planet. The team will explore the biodiversity, evolution, and biogeographic patterns of animals and microbes living in the Eastern Antarctic using morphological and molecular tools to assess Antarctic biodiveristy, unrecognized genetic variation, and patterns of relatedness between populations of marine Antarctic species.
Kocot Lab
Gerken Lab
Andres Pruna
Andres Pruna is a bilingual (Spanish/English) videographer and documentarian who works with various broadcast media outlets including Univision and ABC. Pruna will attend the STRI workshop, film the workshop activities, interview participants and train graduate students and PIs in collecting documentary video footage. He will edit video footage into short news pieces for traditional broadcast media outlets such as Univision and ABC during the STRI workshop and throughout the project, and will produce a 30 minute documentary about the project during the last year of the project for use by project PIs at NHMLA and other public outreach. Pruna and PI Wetzer have produced a series of four short pieces around the topics of marine biodiversity, “I want to be a scientist”, getting children interested in science, and the experience of underserved Los Angeles K-12 STEM teachers during our Dive Into Marine Biology teacher workshop. These were aired in the mornings and afternoons in Los Angeles on a wide reaching Spanish language TV station (KMEX). This was followed by an hour long marine environment special which aired state wide. Best estimates are that 1–1.5 million Spanish speaking viewers were reached via TV and the web.