The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) application season is here. I was fortunate enough to receive a fellowship for my application is 2017 after an unsuccessful one in 2016. From one rejected and one accepted, here is a list of resources that helped get me through it, a bit of my personal … Continue reading
Author Archives: Rob Lampe
UnderTheC’s Recommended Book List
The winter holiday season is quickly approaching, which if you’re lucky means some extra free time away from work or school. Here at UnderTheC, we have compiled a recommend reading list of some of our favorite science related books to keep you occupied and entertained! Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime by Ellen Prager (Justin) NPR article … Continue reading
World Ocean Atlas Maps in Python
Oceanographers generally love maps. They’ve made some pretty great ones like Marie Tharp’s who created the first map of the entire ocean floor: Recently, I wanted to make an oceanographic map for one of my projects. The World Ocean Atlas publishes data such as temperature, salinity, and nutrients for 1° grids all around the world. … Continue reading
Field Photos: Bermuda Cruise
This summer UnderTheC alum, Kelsey Ellis, and I joined the Cassar Lab from Duke University for a research cruise out of Bermuda. This was our cruise track which has striking resemblance to the Bermuda Triangle so naturally we were a little concerned about returning: The ship was the R/V Atlantic Explorer owned by the Bermuda … Continue reading
5 Things I Learned After 1 Year of Grad School
This week officially marks one whole year here at UNC working on my master’s degree so I decided to take some time to reflect on a few broad things I learned. Hopefully this post will provide you with some perspective on graduate school and advice if you are starting soon. 1. Word soup is better … Continue reading
White House Launches Microbiome Initiative, Includes the Ocean!
Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology in collaboration with other Federal agencies and private companies announced a new National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) aiming to accelerate studies on microbiome research including the ocean microbiome. Their aims are summarized in three points: Support interdisciplinary research Develop platform tecnologies Expanding the microbiome workforce This essentially … Continue reading
Getting Started with Bioinformatics
For people doing ecological research, the trend of increasing demand for bioinformatic skills is obvious. I’ll never forget seeing the picture below for the first time when my current adviser gave a talk at N.C. State University and finished with this image to describe how future ocean microbiome research may be conducted. There will be … Continue reading