- Lindsey Kraatz
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science
I have been interested in science since I was a little girl. When I was five years old, I was chosen to be in the dolphin show at Sea World. I vividly remember the trainer asking if I would like to swim with the dolphins. I was so excited as “one…two…three” echoed over the sound system, and I jumped as hard and as high as I could. Alas, the trainer caught me and told me that she was just kidding. The audience laughed and I was devastated, but at that moment, I realized I wanted to spend my life working with animals or at least some aspect of science. My scientific curiosity continued as I entered grade school. In second grade, I attended a field trip to Washington D.C. and toured the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum, as well as attending a videoconference hosted by the pilots of the Alvin, a famous deep-sea submersible. As the dive was in progress, we were able to ask the research scientist all sorts of crazy and interesting questions, and from that moment…I was hooked.
Following my dream to study science, I eventually went on to Florida to study at Eckerd College, where I got a Bachelors of Science degree in Marine Science with a concentration in geology and a minor in biology. While in undergrad, I worked as an intern at the USGS Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies in St. Petersburg, FL, and completed an undergraduate senior thesis studying the historical shoreline change of Honeymoon and Caladesi Islands, west-central Florida. I then moved on to get a masters degree from the UNCW, studying back-barrier marsh habitat using historical aerial photography. Now, I am at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science pursuing my PhD. I am conducting an interdisciplinary study, where I plan on studying bedform morphology on various spatial and temporal scales in physically and biologically dominated environments.
