Laura Gibson

Laura Gibson

Laura graduated in 2015 from UCSB with a B.S. in Aquatic Biology. She moved to San Diego in 2016 and began volunteering in the Sandin lab, and started the M.S. program in 2018. Her thesis is focused around the Palmyra Atoll reefs, and assessing how large area imagery can be used to quantify growth in complex branching coral species. This form of imagery technology allows for the tracking of many different aspects of growth, and is considered a powerful tool. These tools allow her to measure initial size of coral through their more mature adult form, creating metrics of coral morphology across various scales of growth over time.