The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program’s “Academic Kelp”
An “Academic Tree,” tracing the lineages of students back to an original common mentor or influence is a tradition in academia. At the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, we’ve developed this “Academic Kelp” as our marine science version.
Each leaf depicts a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow whose research efforts benefited from association with our program, through field research opportunities or access to data, samples, or guidance, along with the year they completed their program. Each branch depicts a college, university, or other academic institution that served as the student’s academic home. Each degree is depicted by a different color: beige/pink for Masters, bright green/yellow for doctoral, and dark green for post-doc.
The branches come off a common stem that is rooted in the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, showing the founders — Blair Irvine, Michael Scott, and Randall Wells — and the major advisors for Wells’ Masters and Ph.D. programs as individual roots (John Kaufmann and Ken Norris, respectively).
We are grateful to former intern Kaelyn Shirley and long-time volunteer René Bryskov for developing this beautiful image showing our roots and growth over five-plus decades and helping us keep it updated with our newest graduates.
