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News & Announcements&²Ō²ś²õ±č;Ā»&²Ō²ś²õ±č;ā€˜I think Iā€™ve found my lifelong careerā€™: Grad student publishes research as lead author

ā€˜I think Iā€™ve found my lifelong careerā€™: Grad student publishes research as lead author

ā€˜I think Iā€™ve found my lifelong careerā€™: Grad student publishes research as lead author

ā€˜I think Iā€™ve found my lifelong careerā€™: Grad student publishes research as lead author


5/12/2021

Graduate biology student Justin Berg
Graduate biology student Justin Berg holds his research paper that was published in the journal Marine Biology Research in February 2021.

Justin T. Berg, a graduate student in the program, has achieved a personal first and, in the process, solidified the direction he wants to go with his career. As of February, he became a published lead author of scientific research. 

It was a study, which was funded by the , on the effects of shade on coralsā€™ recovery time from heat stress, or coral bleaching, events. The researchers found that both light and temperature work together in coral bleaching events and that shading them greatly assists their recovery time. The paper is published in the peer-reviewed .

ā€œI think Iā€™ve found my lifelong career, which is extremely exciting,ā€ Berg said. ā€œI donā€™t think Iā€™ll ever look back.ā€

This was the first time Berg had ever gone through the full process of writing a scientific paper to getting a project peer reviewed and published. He received support along the way and credits the Guam NSF EPSCoR program as well as Assistant Professor Bastian Bentlage, who supervised and also co-authored the study.

Studyā€œBeing first author is huge, especially when youā€™re looking into applying for a Ph.D. program,ā€ Berg said. ā€œI want to be able to be a professor one day and teach students and give them the opportunities I had.ā€ 

Bentlage said a team of undergraduate and high school interns brought in by the and NSF INCLUDES programs were also crucial in helping with the projectā€™s experimental design and data collection. 

ā€œIt wouldn't have been possible without all these students who were so keen on learning something new and helping my lab develop new approaches to study corals for us to use and add to our portfolio of tools,ā€ Bentlage said. ā€œWe really went on this journey together.ā€ 

Berg is expected to receive his masterā€™s in biology at the end of this semester. He earned his bachelorā€™s from the University of Delaware, double majoring in biology and pre-veterinary medicine and animal biosciences with a minor in chemistry.