Mallory Sea of Sioux City, a senior chemistry and biology major at Morningside College, has received the School for Field Studies (SFS) Distinguished Student Researcher Award for an environmental research project she completed this past fall in Panama.

Mallory Sea of Sioux City, a senior chemistry and biology major at Morningside College, has received the School for Field Studies (SFS) Distinguished Student Researcher Award for an environmental research project she completed this past fall in Panama.

Sea conducted her semesterlong research at the SFS Center for Tropical Island Biodiversity Studies in Panama. She investigated the impact of disease on corals in a marine protected area that is part of an archipelago along Panama’s Caribbean coast.

Each semester, SFS honors its most exceptional students with the Distinguished Student Researcher Award. Sea was one of only three SFS students to receive the award for the fall semester. SFS, based in Massachusetts, is the largest environmental study abroad program for college undergraduates in the U.S.

Dr. Aileen Maldonado, who served as Sea’s SFS adviser, commented that Sea’s research project “resulted in surprising and significant conclusions that may have profound future impacts with regard to the management of the Bastimentos Marine Protected Area in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago.”

Sea’s research in Panama was not her first international study experience. During the summer of 2015, she spent eight weeks in Japan, conducting hands-on research at the University of Tokyo. She was one of 340 students accepted into the Amgen Scholars Program from nearly 5,000 applicants from around the world. The program partners with educational institutions across the U.S., Europe and Japan to host students in research labs.

Amgen is a multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in California.