Each year, Teal Guetschow spends dozens of starry summer nights on Grand Riviere Beach in Trinidad and Tobago, surrounded by dozens of enormous leatherback sea turtles. That one kilometer beach is the largest nesting site in the world for the endangered leatherbacks, with up to 300 turtles laying eggs there every night during breeding season. 

But leatherbacks are declining by 5% each year due to threats like the loss of nesting sites or being accidentally caught in fishing nets. 

College students are disproportionately likely to experience depression than most other demographics in the U.S. While just over 8% of adults in the U.S.

The School of Life Sciences is well known for being the home of cutting-edge science, from massive biotechnology labs and innovative cancer research, to being at the forefront of ancient DNA sequencing and housing one of the biggest social insect research groups in the world. 

Note: This story is part of an ongoing series profiling graduate students in the School of Life Sciences. See January's featured students here. 

Marc Fontánez Ortiz – Environmental Life Sciences PhD

Marc Fontánez Ortiz, a PhD student in the Environmental Life Science program, never could have pictured what his career would look like.