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Marlene Brito Millan | Ph.D. Student | mbrito@ucsd.edu
Short Bio: Marlene was born and raised in Chicago, IL, where she also received her B.S. in Biology from Northeastern Illinois University. After graduation, Marlene’s interests in quantitative ecology drew her towards research on the population viability of an endangered cliffside wildflower (Leedy’s Roseroot) and eventually into exploring population recovery trends (including Allee effects) of overexploited marine mammals.
Research Interests:
- Spatial dynamics
- Coral reef community ecology
- Socio-ecological systems
- Community-based management
Her research interests have evolved towards investigating the dynamical nature of complex systems, such as coral reefs, specifically asking how organisms (e.g. coral, algae, herbivores) interact to generate emergent benthic patterns. Amongst many blessings, Marlene was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which she plans to use to gain a more mechanistic understanding of the community dynamics underlying recovery and resilience of coral reefs using mathematical models. Marlene’s passion for social justice has also driven her to become involved in her community’s immigration, human & indigenous rights movements. She ultimately hopes to apply her activism experiences in the field to develop two-way nonlinear interactions with locals and to find ways to interface indigenous knowledge about coral reefs with more western scientific knowledge structures.
Posts:
Why I Have a Coral Reef Living in My Computer…
Publications: