Andrea Gomez Successfully Defends Thesis to Become First NOAA CESSRST Fellow to Complete PhD

Posted on April 9, 2020

Andrea Gomez Successfully Defends Thesis to Become First NOAA CESSRST Fellow to Complete PhD

Gives Virtual Presentation Because of Coronavirus Pandemic

Andrea Gomez successfully defended her doctoral thesis Wednesday, April 1, to become the first NOAA CESSRST Fellow to earn her PhD and, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the first candidate to present her defense remotely. Dr. Gomez is a Cohort I NOAA EPP funded graduate fellow of the Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technology (CESSRST). She is based at The City College of New York, and she will receive her degree from the Graduate Center, CUNY, in Earth & Environmental Science. NOAA CESSRST is a NOAA EPP/MSI funded program under award NA16SEC4810008.

“Doing a remote thesis defense was an interesting experience,” Dr. Gomez said. “It felt like giving a webinar, and I had never given a virtual presentation before. It was very quiet. There were no coughs in the room. It went well, but I prefer giving live presentations, obviously.”

Dr. Gomez’ thesis is titled “Evaluating Satellite-Based Sea Surface Temperatures and In Situ Observations, and Coral Symbioses in Southwestern Puerto Rico.” Her research investigated the relationship between NOAA Coral Reef Watch’s (CRW) 5km satellite-based sea surface temperatures (SST) product and in-situ temperature loggers deployed at Cayo Enrique and Cayo Mario, in La Parguera, Puerto Rico. It sought to characterize the seasonal changes of the algae symbionts’ identity and density....

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