​Sclerochronology is not a word the average person hears every day, let alone understands, but for RSRC alumnus and marine biologist Dr. Thomas DeCarlo, the word is at the core of his work. Literally. Sclerochronology is the study of the hard tissues and skeletons of invertebrates, and in DeCarlo's case, long-lived, tropical corals. He drills, dates and analyzes cored samples from corals to learn how they grow and also respond to ocean warming and acidification. Sclerochronology is one tool in a suite of research techniques that DeCarlo applies to his projects. Carbonate geochemistry, Raman spectroscopy, paleoceanography and remote sensing are others.

Single-minded determination married with innate curiosity led KAUST postdoctoral fellow Daffne López-Sandoval to where she is today.

López-Sandoval's journey to becoming a marine scientist in the University's Red Sea Research Center began at a young age after she watched a documentary by Jacques Cousteau, the famed French filmmaker, oceanographer, researcher and undersea explorer. Cousteau's documentary focused on nuclear tests performed by the French government at the Mururoa atoll, and it instilled in López-Sandoval a passion for marine life and research.

KAUST Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) postdoctoral fellow Eva Aylagas Martinez spent a large part of her childhood by the seaside in Alicante, the capital of Spain's 200 kilometer-long Costa Blanca coastline. Her childhood there nurtured in her a curiosity for nature and the environment, which led her to pursue a degree in biology at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, in 2009.

Reduced oxygen availability in aquatic habitats is a growing threat to marine ecosystems worldwide. The lack of oxygen triggers many physiological actions in marine animals, generally endangering their homeostasis and rendering them highly susceptible to modifications in the environment, such as temperature, salinity and contaminants.

On June 22th Roberto Arrigoni, a research scientist in the Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) has been awarded with the international prize “Benazzi Lentati” in Zoology by the Lincean Academy. The Lincean Academy is the oldest scientific academy in the World, being founded in 1603. The international prize was dedicated to international young researchers (below 35 years old) in the field of organismic evolutionary zoology.The scientific committee of Lincean Academy evaluated the candidates on the base of their CVs and selected me as unique winner. The amount of money of this prize is 10000 euro.

"Sugar enrichment provides evidence for a role of nitrogen fixation in coral bleaching" published in Global Change Biology is now featured on KAUST Discovery