Profiles
Steve McMurray
Graduate Student
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Steve McMurray is a graduate student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). He received a B.A. degree in biology from Hiram College and a M.S. degree in marine biology from UNCW. His master’s thesis involved studies of the growth, demographics, bleaching, and conservation of the Caribbean giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta, in the Florida Keys. Upon graduating from UNCW, Steve served as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea Grant Knauss Fellow in the National Sea Grant Office and subsequently worked for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in Silver Spring, MD. He recently returned to UNCW to pursue his Ph.D in Marine Biology. Steve is interested in studying the influence of sponge ecology on the structure and dynamics of coral reef ecosystems.
