Learn from the best!
USC Beaufort prides itself on recruiting the best professors in their fields to lead and prepare future generations.
Dr. Kim Ritchie
Dr. Ritchie has studied microbes associated with corals and coral reef organisms for over 25 years. Her research interests include coral and coral invertebrate diseases, the influence of climate and oceanic pH changes on host-microbe dynamics, and the role of beneficial microbes in corals and other marine organisms.
Her current research also focuses on the role beneficial bacteria may play in wound healing in elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) and their potential as a source for novel antibiotics.
As a molecular ecologist, Dr. Pettay uses an interdisciplinary approach to reveal how environmental conditions cause changes in cellular processes that can then cascade to the whole organism and ecosystem and drive the evolution of populations and species.
Learn and understand algal biology, biogeochemistry, biogeography, comparative physiology, ecology/evolution, environmental change, harmful algae, continuous environmental monitoring, invertebrate/algal symbioses, microbial ecology, molecular ecology, oceanography, and population genetics.
