Student Success Stories

VWU Student Presents:
Mercury Concentration in Tissue of Bottlenose Dolphins Research

Ms. Sherie Coleman ’17 (Biology) travelled to San Francisco, California to attend the 21st Biennial Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals. Ms. Coleman presented her poster entitled "Mercury Concentrations in the Liver, Kidney, and Brain of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Stranded Along the Coast of Virginia,” which displayed her research conducted under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Malcolm, Virginia Wesleyan Professor of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, and in collaboration with Mr. Matt Cooke ’16 (Earth and Environmental Science) to an international audience of approximately 3,000 marine mammal researchers.

Ms. Coleman was also elected to the Committee of Scientific Advisors for The Society of Marine Mammology.  One of her many duties is to review research proposals from young investigators in developing countries (Small Grant in Aid Research program).   This position is quite an honor for Ms. Coleman, and it recognizes her impressive scholarly research as an undergraduate student at Virginia Wesleyan University.