Undergraduates present research, earn recognition at SACNAS conference

Aaliyah Thomas (L) and Amy Deatherage (R) at the SACNAS 2025 NDiSTEM Conference.

Amy Deatherage, Global Environmental Science major, was honored with an Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Marine Sciences at the SACNAS 2025 NDiSTEM Conference, the leading multidisciplinary and multicultural STEM conference in the country. 

Deatherage presented her work to characterize the aggregating behavior of ha‘uke‘uke–a native species of sea urchin in Hawai‘i. Her mentors are Kuʻi Keliipuleole, a graduate student in the Marine Biology Graduate Program, and Malia Rivera, principal investigator of the KeaoaLoʻe REMS Lab at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology.

“This was my first time ever attending a conference, so I found the newness of everything so exciting!” Deatherage shared. “I got to attend a super cool talk on research SACNAS scientists are doing in Antarctica, enjoyed being able to meet so many other students and professors, and learned about various grad school, internship, and job opportunities at booths in the conference hall. I was amazed by how welcoming everyone was, and how easy it was to talk to other students and scientists attending the conference.”

Deatherage was one of two SOEST undergraduate students who traveled to Columbus, Ohio recently to share their research and connect with other STEM professionals at the conference. Aaliyah Thomas, Environmental Earth Science major, also attended the conference and presented her field research from a summer internship program at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos. Her research was aimed at mapping salinity to determine the presence of submarine groundwater discharge near the Charles Darwin Research Station. 

Funding for the students’ travel to the conference was provided by UH Mānoa Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (Deatherage) and University of Washington – College of the Environment Geo-Futures Program (Thomas).