Fisheries grad students win with research presentations Haitham Mohammed and Andrea Larsen, two doctoral students working under the guidance of Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures associate professor Cova Arias, earned top honors
for their research presentations. Mohammed won the best student presentation award at the 28th annual meeting of the Alabama Fisheries Association in Columbiana.
His research focuses on assessing the efficacy of new vaccines against columnaris disease, which is caused by the bacterium Flavobacterium columnare and is one of the main fish pathogens affecting freshwater
aquaculture worldwide. At the 89th annual meeting of the Alabama
Academy of Sciences in Tuskegee, Larsen’s paper reporting on her doctoral studies of microbial communities associated with Gulf of Mexico fishes was named the most outstanding in the student paper competition.
Specifically, Larsen is investigating the relationships between fish and bacteria that play a role in host health.