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Daniel Olivares-Cordero
Current - PhD Candidate in Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography at the University of Southern California and HHMI Gilliam Fellow
M.S. Biology - CSU Los Angeles 2021
B.S. Biology - CSU Monterey Bay 2019
About Me
I am a PhD student in Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography PhD Program at USC. I will be studying the evolution of coral and sea anemone symbiosis under the mentorship of Dr. Carly Kenkel. I am recently finished my MS in Biology at CSULA with Dr. Andres Aguilar studying depth-based adaptation in rockfish. In addition to my research, I have devoted my time to being a mentor and various outreach efforts in order to advance justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in academic spaces and the broader STEM communities.
News
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Summer 2025 - I received the USC Gold Research Fellowship and was accepted to the CSU PREPP Program.
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May 2025 - I received the USC MEB Student Service Award.
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December 2024 - I presented survey results of a class I taught over the summer of 2024 to high school students in the Pomona College Academy for Youth Success about understanding the climate crisis through symbiosis. I also helped organize a workshop where researchers and management practitioners discussed best strategies to save engendered coral in the Carribean.
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November 2024 - Damaris Ortega presented their project for optimal DNA extraction methods for Anthopleura elegantissima photosymbionts. She was a recipient of the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists travel scholarship.
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September 2024 - I was selected to be part of the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship Program! Congrats to the all the recipients!
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Summer 2024 - A recap of Kiana Hernandez's (2024 Summer Wrigley REU) looking at seasonal gonadal size variation in Anthopleura elegantissima. She presented this work at the Wrigley REU Symposium, Western Society of Naturalists, Ecological Society of America and won a travel scholarship to SACNAS as a result of her project.
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Summer/Fall 2024 - Field work season recap. We sampled a lot of anemones.
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May 2024 - I received a Southern California Academy of Sciences Research Grant to continue research related to Anthopleura elegantissima population genetics.
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April 2024 - I presented my work related to early life stage symbiont community shifts in heat stressed Montipora digitata at the Yosemite Symbiosis Meeting. This work is now published in Ecology and Evolution.
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November 2023 - I am now a PhD Candidate
October 2023 - Received a grant from the CSU to continue work related to Anthopleura elegantissima symbiosis.
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August 2023 - REU Student, Mahala Peter-Frank presented her research on coral chemical bleaching in at the Wrigley Institute Research Symposium
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October 2022 - I was a part of a group of many scientists and volunteers that delivered a series of Bioblitz events at SACNAS in San Juan Puerto Rico.
September 2022 - Reimagining Broader Impacts published in Frontiers in Education
September 2022 - MS work with Dr. Andres Aguilar, out in Ecology and Evolution.
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June 2022 - I was selected as a CSU Doctoral Incentive Program Fellow and received an Honorable Mention in the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship
May 2022 - Carly and I helping out with the Acrobats Miami Experiment
April 2022 - Attended a data management and publishing workshop meant to facilitate skills in this area for fellow graduate students. Special thanks to Dr. Bryan Juarez and company for putting this event together.
November 2021 - Started an Open House informational event to increase recruitment of historically excluded students in the Marine and Enviornmental biology section at USC.
May 2021 - Successfully presented my MS thesis titled, Finding the right home: Depth as a driver of adaptive evolution in the genus Sebastes.
