Travels with my grant - Steve Doo

Travels with my grant - Steve Doo

Steve Doo with Prof. Pamela Hallock visiting the Makapu'u tidepools in Oahu, Hawaii

Grant recipient: Steve Doo (University of Sydney, Australia) 

Travelled to: 13th International Coral Reef Symposium, Honolulu, Hawaii

This conference brought together over 2500 of the world’s leading coral reef scientists, for a week of talks and discussions. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Bridging science to policy’. The plenary talks during the week ranged from success stories of reef management to advances in ways to better protect and conserve reefs. A pivotal point in the conference came when a group of panelists including Prof. Ruth Gates, Prof. Ove Hoegh- Guldberg, Prof. Terry Hughes and Prof. Nancy Knowlton asked the audience to reach a consensus that climate change was impacting coral reefs, and that immediate action needed to be taken. As a result of this, a letter was sent to the Australian Government strongly stating that further support of coal mines would be detrimental to coral reefs.

I had the opportunity to meet with researchers in my field and get career advice from academics including Dr Andrew Baker, Dr Valerie Paul, Dr Kazuhiko Fujita and Dr Janice Lough. These interactions have opened opportunities for a postdoctoral fellowship that I did not know about before this meeting. The highlight of my week was meeting Prof. Pamela Hallock who started in the field that I am currently working in, and during my presentation, I had the opportunity to talk to her about my work, and even the opportunity to go with her to her first field site in Hawaii (the place where it all started!). As I am in the final stages of my PhD, it was an amazing opportunity to connect with one of the world experts in my field, and the knowledge I gained from those interactions will be extremely valuable. I would like to thank the Company of Biologists and the Society of Experimental Biology for the amazing opportunity to attend this conference. 

See how you can apply for a SEB travel grant here