SAMS news room

A student who has returned to SAMS, a partner of UHI, to undertake a PhD following an internship has described the “special” community that brought her back.

Louise Gao is one of seven postgraduate students who have begun a new academic journey at SAMS. Their topics of study range from marine litter and aquaculture through to human impacts on the deep sea.

Louise, who is supervised by Dr Helena Reinardy and will investigate sea lice at the interface of wild salmon conservation and aquaculture, said: “Following my incredibly enjoyable internship at SAMS, I knew it was somewhere I wanted to return to for my PhD.

“What makes SAMS particularly special is its warm, welcoming, multidisciplinary community, where collaboration across different areas of research is encouraged, and students are supported through hands-on experience and close engagement with supervisors.”

Another new PhD student, Emily Burroughs, chose to come to SAMS for its academic reputation.

Emily, who will work alongside Dr Jennifer Graham on future stressors on intertidal habitats, said: “I decided to come here as there is expertise in my area of interest and a reliable and long-term dataset to use for analysis.

“I liked the small research institution type environment of SAMS rather than being in a big city when joining a university. I also liked the location as it was coastal and there are lots of activities to do alongside studying.”

Among the other students on the new PhD student cohort include Zoe Scott-Green, who will explore impacts of marine litter, including abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear, and the role of commercial fisheries in recovery and reduction. Her PhD will be supervised by Director of Studies Dr Steven Benjamins.

Haya Alquood is investigating thermal stress and early life stage performance in emerging aquaculture species of the Arabian Gulf and will be supervised Dr Helena Reinardy at SAMS and Dr Silvana Birchenough at the University of Khorfakkan.

Sneha Sunny is exploring the effects of anthropogenic changes on deep-sea abyssal plain and seamount benthic ecosystems in the North Atlantic using in-situ experimentation and modelling. She is supervised by Prof. Andrew Sweetman.

Alfred Kidner is studying how we can progress towards mechanistic functional understanding of algal biostimulants for agriculture and is supervised by Dr Michael Ross.

Perle Deaibes, who gained a Masters in algal biotechnology and bioeconomy at SAMS in 2024, has returned to the institute for her PhD on decoding the language of lipids in seaweed host-oomycetes pathosystem, which is through the University of Edinburgh. Her Director of Studies Dr Puja Kumari is based at SAMS.

Head of SAMS Graduate School Prof. Bhavani Narayanaswamy said: “I’m always excited to see the arrival of a new cohort of talented and motivated postgraduate students. They will really add to the community of SAMS, as well as contributing to the research here.

“There is a really diverse range of topics within the cohort including projects that were proposed by the students themselves.

“The additional programme of training they will receive, on top of their academic study, will greatly support their professional development and enable them to enter many different types of roles, from academic or industry, to policy and government.”

Meanwhile, it has been a season of celebration at the SAMS Graduate School as three students have successfully defended their vivas in the past fortnight. Congratulations to Drs Carla Ruiz Gonzalez, Hayley Swanlund and Caitlin Lamb.

Find out more about postgraduate study at SAMS.