Student Research

Student research involvement is encouraged. Those interested in any aspect of the current work can write to us directly in the “contact us” section. We also accept proposals from students who have specific talents and backgrounds for developing ideas related to current and future planned studies. We welcome your inquiries and proposals.

Most of the participation is with the Research Investigation; there are currently no positions on the field expedition team available. Samples of student involvement range from translation of foreign publications, as done by Lisa-Marie Leclerc, to thesis work. Ethan Madison Tyler is currently compiling CT and MRI images of narwhal specimens to render 3-D anatomical models that will be completed for his M.A. thesis at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Lisa-Marie Leclerc is from the French Canadian city of Rimouski near the St-Lawrence River. After receiving the Special Merit Award from Chemical Institute of Canada in 2001, she decided to initiate a career in marine science. A few years later, Lisa-Marie began her undergraduate study at the University of Quebec in Rimouski. During her first year, she obtained a scholarship to California State University, Long Beach. While in Long Beach she volunteered at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and currently works as a Naturalist in Hawaii. Lisa-Marie is now focusing on marine mammal research with the goal of obtaining a PhD.

Ethan Madison Tyler is a second-year graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he is working toward a Master of Arts degree in Medical and Biological Art. Students in this program take first- and second-year medical courses, such as Anatomy and Histology, in addition to courses taught by faculty in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine, such as Surgical Illustration and Computer Animation. Using a variety of media and precise knowledge of the subject matter, biomedical artists show what the lens of a camera is unable to capture. Ethan is originally from Austin, Texas, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Concordia University at Austin. Although most of Ethan’s work concerns medical subject matter, marine science is one of his greatest interests. For his thesis, Ethan plans to produce three-dimensional and traditional renderings of Narwhal, Monodon monoceros, anatomy based on CT, MRI, and dissection.