About Me

Hi, I’m Rose! I’m a marine biologist, Ph.D. student, educator, and science communicator based in South Florida.

I’m currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at Florida Atlantic University in the Grupstra Reef Symbiosis lab, where I study coral reef ecology and resilience. I earned my Bachelors in Marine Biology from Florida International University, and since then I’ve had the chance to experience marine science from a lot of different angles. I’ve worked in ecological monitoring, research, science communication, and education, and somewhere along the way I also became a scientific diver.

I’ve always been someone who wants to know how things work, especially when it comes to the ocean. That curiosity is what originally pulled me toward marine biology and eventually toward coral reef research. I love that there is always another question to ask, another organism to learn about, or something completely unexpected happening underwater.

I also really enjoy teaching. I currently teach undergraduate biology labs at FAU, including Invertebrate Zoology. Getting to introduce students to animals they may have never seen or sometimes even heard of is easily one of my favorite parts of the job. I’m a big believer that science is much easier to care about when you actually get the chance to experience it.

Outside of research and teaching, science communication is a huge part of what I do. I’m a co-founder and board member of SoUL, and I enjoy finding ways to make marine and environmental science interesting and accessible to people who don’t spend their days reading scientific papers.

Most of my work comes back to the same thing: I really like the ocean, I really like asking questions about it, and I want more people to have the opportunity to understand and care about it too.

When I’m not doing science, you can usually find me traveling, taking way too many pictures, spending time near the water, or finding some new project to get myself involved in.

This site is a collection of all of those things, my research, teaching, fieldwork, science communication, and everything else I pick up along the way on this journey to being Dr. Santana.