Nick Bowling ’12 is spending the Spring 2010 semester at the Duke Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, taking several courses and working on independent research that involves polymerization of barnacle glues on hard substrates and the adverse coagulative compounds used to prevent them from taking hold. This research has many applications such as removing barnacles from boat hulls and preventing them from taking hold in the first place.

Nick has also been involved with week-long travel courses offered through the Duke Marine Lab. He went to Singapore for an Urban Tropical Ecology course, then to Trinidad for a course on the Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles. One of the highlights of Nick’s field expedition in Trinidad involved nesting leatherback sea turtles, shown here.

Nesting sea turtles in Trinidad

"You can go anywhere with a degree from Hampden-Sydney College"