About Carlos Alberto Tramonte
Living in South Florida for 17 years, water has always been a part of my life. In Highschool, I played Water polo, and outside of school, I made regular trips to the Florida Keys whenever I could to SCUBA dive and free dive; this is where I really learned to love the ocean. As I went down to the keys each time, however, I started realizing that the spots I once saw filled with life and magnificent coral, were now desolate and reduced to rubble. It pained me to see the places I loved to go to be a fraction of what they used to be. This is when I decided to study Marine Biology and make it my life's work to try and save this truly mesmerizing ecosystem.
Once I graduated from Cypress Bay Highschool, I decided to continue my studies at Boston College, where I am currently a rising senior studying a B.S. in Biological Science and a minor in Environmental Studies. Here, I have honed my skills as a scientist to get me to be a competitive and well-rounded individual needed to succeed in the future. During my Junior year, after winning the McGillycuddy-Logue Travel Grant, I traveled to Australia to study abroad at the University of Queensland.
Surrounded by world-renowned scientists like Sophie Dove, Selina Ward, and Ron Johnstone, just to name a few, I expanded my repertoire immensely; with them as well as others teaching me how to think, write, and perform experiments like a scientist as well as make me realize how much more important it is to save coral reefs during our field trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. After UQ, I used my travel grant money to see the marine biodiversity hotspot of the world: Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Here I truly fell in love with not only the spectacular coral structures and new species of fish I had never seen, but also the incredible conservation done to establish a successful marine protection area.
Fueled with an intense passion for everything coral reefs, I came back to the United States determined to get a master's and Ph.D. As a result, I joined the Davies Marine Population Genomics Lab at Boston University as a Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program recipient and through the help of Dr. Sarah W Davies and Ph.D. student Daniel Wuitchik I began work on my current project found in the Experience/Projects page
Research Interests
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The resiliency of coral reefs through the human processes that affect the resiliency of local, regional and global ecosystems using new technologies + methods to provide accurate data for conservation planning.
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The resiliency of corals, specifically with the symbiont via symbiont shuffling, genomics, and mixotrophy to create “super symbionts” that can potentially aid in the future.
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More broadly, I would be happy to look into anything revolving coral reef ecology, conservation, surveying, and climate change as well as grazer importance, trophic diversity, population genetics, reproduction, spawning, recruitment, and calcification rates all in regards to climate change.
References
Sarah W Davies, Ph.D. - Marine Population Genomics Lab: daviessw@gmail.com
Chasneika Astacio - McNair Scholars: chasneika.astacio@bc.edu
Professor Heather Olins, Ph.D. - Boston College: olins@bc.edu
Ana M. Castejon, Ph.D. - NOVA College of Pharmacy: castejon@nova.edu
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