- Matt Subia
- California State University Monterey Bay
My interest in science really took shape when I enrolled at the local junior college after graduating from high school. I was an undeclared major for several semesters until I registered for a career and lifestyles course. I took the Myers-Briggs personality test to determine my academic and/or career interests. Among the list of careers generated based on my answers, the title Oceanographer stood out among the other selections because I had never heard of it before. I did some research on the field and then registered in an introductory Oceanography course available at the school. I immediately became obsessed with the coursework and learning about fascinating topics such as Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) as a technique to track changes in climate due to global warming. I was completely oblivious that such stimulating research was taking place in science. My enthusiasm for the course inspired me to request the professor to become my mentor and I became a tutor for the class because I enjoyed the opportunity to re-immerse myself in the material. Naturally, I enrolled in other science classes such Weather and Climate, Biology, Geology, Physics, etc. After completing the science requirements at the junior college, I decided to transfer to a four-year university to further advance my education in the sciences.
I chose California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) because of its applied learning methods and its close proximity to a wealth of prominent oceanographic institutions such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing Marine Labs, Hopkins Marine Station, Naval Postgraduate School, and University of California Santa Cruz. I graduated from CSU Monterey Bay in 2007 with a B.S. in Earth Systems Science and Policy (ESSP), concentrating in Marine and Coastal Ecology. During my undergraduate education, I supplemented my academic curriculum with summer internships in graduate research. In 2005, I interned at Scripps Institute of Oceanography as a participant in the Summer Training Academy for Research in the Sciences (STARS) program. I examined the relationship between surface energy and the acoustics of bubble fragmentation induced by the turbulent stress created by breaking waves. The scientific objectives of this research were to determine the physical origin of the numbers and sizes of bubbles formed by breaking waves with the ultimate goal of improving models of air-sea gas exchange in the ocean. In 2006, I participated in the Diversity Project, which is an internship combining field work on the coral reefs of Indonesia with cutting edge molecular genetic research at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole. I examined the pattern and magnitude of genetic exchange of a threatened and commercially valuable clam species. The scientific objective of this research was to help improve the understanding of the origins of marine biodiversity in Indonesia.
I am currently a graduate student at CSUMB studying Coastal and Watershed Science and Policy (CWSP) with an emphasis in Marine Science. I am working with Dr. James Lindholm at the Institute for Applied Marine Ecology (IfAME). My thesis is to study the site fidelity and movement of three species of coral reef fishes relative to landscape features using acoustic telemetry. The data were collected by Dr. Lindholm during a November 2005 Aquarius mission. Now I have the once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in an Aquarius mission and collect more fine-scale data to further our understanding of fish movement behavior.
