And then there were five

This trip to Palau is different. In 2018, it was just Hanny and me. In 2021, I brought along Kharis. I knew each of them well, and it was just the two of us. But this time, I am in charge of a larger team, and we all met in person for the first time in Palau. With that in mind, I want to introduce you to the team.
 
Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser (that’s me). I’m a larval biologist, benthic ecologist, SCUBA diver, and lover of the color orange. You all pretty much know me by now.
 
Carsten Grupstra is the new postdoc on the Palau project. We hired him to replace Hanny when she moved on. Cas just finished his PhD at Rice University. For his dissertation, he studied how fecal detritus from corallivorous and herbivorous fish influences microbial symbiont composition on coral reefs in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. In English: he spent four years following fish around and identifying the microbes in their poop. As it turns out, poop from some fish helps spread healthy microbes between corals, so it’s actually really important for reefs! Cas also loves making terrible puns. Like seriously terrible puns.
 
Matthew-James Bennett was recruited to join our team from his home lab in Curaçao because of his expertise in coral spawning. He’s previously worked with a number of gonochoric species from spawning to fertilization to larval culturing to settlement. He loves exploring the world through travel, with or without a well-formed plan.

The team at one of our study sites, Risong

 
Maikani Andres is an intern joining our team from Palau. She’s one semester away from finishing her degree in marine science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (go, Maikani, go!) and is using her time off to help with our project. She loves nerding out about fish and invertebrates and has a deep appreciation for “life hacks” portrayed in TikTok videos.
 
Mary-Jane Shanks is a volunteer I met last November in Palau. She’s passionate about marine science and conservation and was looking for opportunities to be involved with research projects. She’s helping us out in the field with coral collections. MJ is also a connoisseur of craft beer.
 
I kind of want to brag about this team a little bit, because things have been going incredibly well so far. A day into the trip, I was looking at each of the team members and thinking to myself “We will most definitely be friends.” I’m also pretty proud of the diversity in our team – without applying any artificial selection factors (we literally just chose the most qualified person for each position), we have ended up with a team that:
 
- hails from four major world regions: North America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania
- has excellent gender balance
- includes members who are variously single, in a partnership, married, straight, and LGBTQ+
- has bonded over a love of marine science
 
I am proud and grateful to be leading such a solid team of researchers. This is going to be a great trip.