Rachel Harbeitner, a fifth year Ph.D. student in Ocean Sciences, finished third in the systemwide UC Office of the President Grad Slam held May 10 in San Francisco at LinkedIn.
Hartbeitner's presentation, Tiny carbon eaters of the deep sea, includes the surprising research finding that deep-sea, ocean-floor bacteria consume dead plankton (carbon bodies) and release carbon dioxide back into the ocean and ultimately back into the atmosphere at 50 times the rate—in about a week—than hypothesized.
The third-place prize of $1,000 adds to her other winnings for her research presentation: $1,500 for being runner-up in UCSC's Grad Slam on March 8 (Sarah Kienle, UCSC's Grad Slam champion, could not represent UCSC after her research team's expedition to Antarctica to study leopard seals was rescheduled) and $250 for winning best presentation of the Physical and Biological Sciences Division in the Graduate Research Symposium on April 26.
