Amber Diluzio

I graduated from University of California Santa Cruz with a B.S. in Marine Biology. As an undergraduate , I volunteered in Dr. Rita Mehta's elongate vertebrate lab and completed my senior thesis on the feeding behavior and maximum prey size of the California Morray Eel, Gymnothorax mordax. While conducting my undergraduate research I was introduced to a graduate student that was studying elephant seals at Año Nuevo, which lead me to my first field experience with marine mammals.  After graduation I got involved with the Long Marine Lab Stranding program, where I worked as a stranding technician for a few years.  During that time I was responsible for stranding response and necropsies of dead marine mammals and sharks in Santa Cruz county. Through my experiences I gained a foundational understanding of local pinnipeds and their ecology which sparked my curiosity about future research.

Currently, I am a first year student in Dr. Gitte McDonald's vertebrate ecology lab. My research will aim to focus on elephant seal dive behavior.  I am also excited for the opportunity to continue my  work with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network through graduate school in the McDonald lab.