I spent a day at the America Business Forum representing Project Anchor Down. Different crowd than our usual science rooms. More founders, operators, and investors. I went in to listen, learn, and figure out how to run our ocean work with the same discipline that good businesses use. Why I went We are growing programs like internships, micro-grants, and field pilots. I wanted to pressure test our plans with people who build teams, manage budgets, and deliver on deadlines. It helped to...

I spent an afternoon with Dr. John Geiger’s Tropical Ecology  class to share what our lab and nonprofit are building around coral cell and molecular biology . Different room, same mission. Show the real work, keep it clear, and leave students with a next step they can take this week. What we covered Symbiosis 101:  How coral hosts and their algal partners share space and energy. We walked through the cell basics, from membrane transport to signaling, and why tiny changes can scale up to reef...

From November 18–21 , we joined the Reef Florida  convention at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. Our FIU crew rolled in strong— 11 delegates  total from labs across campus—and spent four packed days trading ideas, asking hard questions, and comparing notes with colleagues from around South Florida and beyond. I attended with Alex Sanchez , an undergraduate research lab tech from our group. Together we presented our work on mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) —the small,...