Sally Rouse, a graduate student at Heriot-Watt University, is one of sixteen early career scientists from education institutions around the world to be made an EOL Rubenstein Fellow.
The successful candidates were chosen from 91 applicants, all of whom proposed valuable research. These fellows are not only sharing their research with the world via EOL, they are also vital to the maturation of EOL as a functional tool for scientists.
Sally grew up on the south coast of England where she took an interest in marine biology. She received her undergraduate degree in biology from Imperial College London, and completed research placements in the Galapagos Islands and Honduras before going on to study for a Masters of Science in marine biology at Heriot-Watt University. Her area of research as a Fellow will be Marine Bryozoa of the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Sally says, "I first became interested in Bryozoa during my Masters of Science project in which I investigated spatial and temporal patterns in bryozoan distribution and community structure.
"My current work on Bryozoa aims to document their distribution patterns throughout the British Isles and use these data to inform marine spatial planning and conservation.
"The EOL pages on Bryozoa will provide a rich online source of taxonomic information as faunistic inventories which can complement biodiversity assessments. It is hoped that the EOL pages will make information on this group, which is often unappreciated and considered to be taxonomically challenging, available to a wider scientific audience and accessible to the general public."
Sally's mentors will be Dr Joanne Porter of Heriot Watt University and Dr Mary Spencer Jones of The Natural History Museum London.
One of the hallmarks of the EOL Fellows programme is the diversity of its participants. This group of Fellows research specialities cover taxa from fungi of Egypt to Afrotropical birds.
With the Fellows assistance and feedback, the EOL Fellows Program will better serve 21st century scientists around the world. The generosity of David M. Rubenstein to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History made the programme possible.