People

Dr. Sarah Smith (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor of Biological Oceanography


Ph.D., Marine Biology         Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CA (2014)
M.S., Marine Science         Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, CA (2009)
B.S. Biology          Santa Clara University, Santa Clara CA (2003)

Email: sarah.r.smith@sjsu.edu

 

 

 


Dominic Kyle Ypil (he/him/his)

SJSU M.S. Graduate Student - Joining Fall 2023

Dominic Kyle, a 2020 graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, has over two years of industry experience in bioremediation and biogeochemistry. He discovered his passion for biological oceanography through this experience, which led him to join Dr. Sarah Smith's lab. Dominic's research interests focus on studying the effects of Anthropogenic pressures on marine environments, particularly in relation to phytoplankton diversity, eDNA, and biogeochemistry. He looks forward to contributing novel ideas to the field of oceanography through his work in the lab.

 

 


Jo Kaya (they/them/theirs)

SJSU M.S. Graduate Student - Joining Fall 2023

Jo graduated with a B.S. in Integrated Plant Sciences from Washington State University in 2019. Throughout their undergrad, they worked part-time for the USDA-ARS Club Wheat Breeding program and the WSDA Plant Pest Diagnostics Clinic. For the last three years they have been employed full time as a lab and field technician in the Brassica Breeding Program at the University of Idaho. Jo’s interest in marine science stems from a personal hobby of home aquariums. They recently had the opportunity to sail for six weeks with Dr. Kevin Arrigo at Stanford University investigating of the fate of primary production in the Chukchi Sea. Jo’s research in the Smith lab will focus on transcript abundance and the molecular mechanisms that drive nitrate assimilation in phytoplankton.


Hannah May (she/her/hers)

CSUMB REU 2023 Undergraduate Intern

Hannah is currently an undergraduate student at Clemson University in Clemson, SC working towards her BS in Biological Sciences with a minor in genetics. She has joined the lab through the Monterey Bay REU program and is working on a project that uses molecular biomarkers in diatoms to indicate nitrogen status in the field. She is thrilled to work in the lab over summer and gain experience with designing primers, running PCR and qPCR, and various other techniques.

 

 

 


Hannah McGrath (she/her/hers)

SJSU M.S. Graduate Student - Joined Fall 2022

Hannah graduated with a BA in environmental science with a minor in managerial economics from Colby College in Waterville, ME in 2022. Junior year she had the opportunity to learn from and work alongside Dr. Peter Countway at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences which sparked her passion for phytoplankton ecology, specifically harmful algae blooms (HABs). She continued her passion for HABs during the summer of 2021 in Florida working at the Red Tide Institute under Dr. Cindy Heil. Hannah’s main research interests include marine phytoplankton composition, harmful algal bloom abundance, duration, timing and detection, and science communication.

Hannah is primarily advised by Holly Bowers in the Environmental Biotechnology lab at MLML