A warm welcome to Master’s student Jonathan Simon! Jonathan Simon recently joined the Aquaculture Lab of Dr. Cortney Ohs at the University of Florida Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce, Florida, where he will be conducting his Master’s thesis research.
Jonathan is a graduate student of the International Master of Marine Biological Resources
program. His academic journey started in Germany where he received an undergraduate
degree in Biology at the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn. During his
undergraduate studies, he reared delicate pelagic larvae of ribbon worms and applied
expansion microscopy to unveil previously unseen compounds of their nervous system.
During his graduate studies, he spent a semester at the University of Algarve, Portugal,
University of Oviedo, Spain, the University of Ghent, Belgium, the University of Gothenburg,
Sweden and Marche Polytechnic University, Italy, and gained diverse perspectives and enriched his understanding of aquaculture.
His research will focus on the dietary live prey preferences of marine ornamental fish larvae.
Using Fluorescence Microscopy, he will be analyzing stained and marked prey organisms fed to the larvae and results should identify the larval fish’s dietary choices. The goal is to optimize feeding protocols and contribute to sustainable practices in aquaculture. Jonathan said, “working in aquaculture feels like going back to my roots because my fascination with marine aquarists began in my teenage years and inspired me to pursue marine biology as a career. Therefore, I am grateful for the opportunity to gain further experience with marine ornamental fish aquaculture and hopefully my research will contribute to the sustainable development aquaculture”. We look forward to sharing updates as Jonathan’s research develops!
