Earth Month: Saving Corals
Join the USC Fisher Museum of Art, Wrigley Institute faculty affiliate Dr. Carly Kenkel, and Wrigley Institute graduate fellow Adib Mustofa for a special lecture on the impact of climate change on coral reefs.
This program complements the Fisher Museum exhibition Mulyana: Modular Utopia, which is composed of intricately constructed, knit modules of marine life sculptures that vividly portray an unadulterated underwater world.
Followed by light refreshments.
About the speakers:
Dr. Carly D. Kenkel is Gabilan Assistant Professor of Biological Science in Marine and Environmental Biology at the University of Southern California. Her lab studies the eco-evolutionary dynamics that affect populations of tropical reef-building coral. This research illuminates patterns of adaptive diversity, helps predict corals’ responses to global climate change, and informs preservation work aimed at conserving genetic diversity and restoring ecosystem function. Kenkel is a 2019 Sloan Research Fellow and received the International Coral Reef Society’s Early-Career Scientist Award in 2020. She is also a recognized expert and active participant in several inter-institutional working and advisory groups, most recently serving on the steering committee for the NSF Research Coordination Network on Evolution in Changing Seas and the Genetics Working Group of the Coral Restoration Consortium.
Adib Mustofa is originally from Indonesia and earned his master’s degree in marine conservation from the University of Tasmania in 2016. He worked with the World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia as an MPA and biodiversity officer at Seram Seas before serving as a lecturer at the Institute Teknologi Sumatera, Lampung Province. He recently joined Dr. Carly Kenkel’s CEE Lab as a University of Southern California Ph.D. student. His research covers the genetics of reef-building, climate change-resilient corals and the symbiotic relationship between corals and microalgae to improve coral reef restoration efforts. He is also a USC Fulbright Scholar.