Meet the SURFOs: Deborah Leopo

June 27, 2018

For the 33rd consecutive year, the Graduate School of Oceanography hosts students within its Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Oceanography (SURFO) program. Students are matched with advisors to participate in an authentic research experience and to discover that training in the basic sciences or engineering is both applicable and necessary for the complex challenges facing oceanographic research.

Deborah Leopo is one of the dozen students in the 2018 cohort. Deb is working on deep-sea snail populations in the laboratory of Roxanne Beinart, comparing genotypes and morphological differences of Alviniconcha spp. found at hydrothermal vents in the Lau Basin.

Alviniconcha snails at hydrothermal vents in the Lau Basin, Tonga. Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Alviniconcha snails at hydrothermal vents in the Lau Basin, Tonga. Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Deb is a rising senior in Marine Biology and Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

SURFO is funded by the National Science Foundation as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) under grant number OCE-1757572.