JUSTL participant: Ms Connie Pui Ling Lau
Ms Connie Pui Ling Lau is a Fisheries Officer in the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD). She completed her MPhil degree in 2011 in Professor Put Ang Jr.’s laboratory in the Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her MPhil project involved investigating the reproductive cycle of the black coral (Antipathes curvata) in Hong Kong waters. After her MPhil degree, Ms Lau worked in a consultancy company for 3 years, before she started working at the AFCD.
Current Work
Ms Lau has worked at the AFCD since 2015. She is involved in overseeing and working on a number of ecological monitoring and education programs related to the marine parks in Hong Kong.
JUSTL Programme
Ms Lau participated in the 2009 JUSTL programme, and she was mentored by Dr Scott Lindell (now in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, WHOI) and Dr. Nagwa Mohammady (Department of Botany and Microbiology, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt). She worked on a project to determine the most efficient methods for preparing biodiesel from algae. She tested nine different strains of microalgae and investigated various culture methods in order to determine which species and which culture conditions were the optimal for the production of biodiesel. Ms Lau told me that, “I was very lucky to be able to work as intern under Dr. Scott Lindell and Dr Nagwa Mohammady. The field was completely new for me but with their supervision I could pick things up very easily.” Indeed, data that Ms Lau collected were subsequently published in Energy and Fuels* and in the Research Journal of Phytochemistry**.
In addition, to working on her project, Ms Lau also worked as an intern in the Marine Resources Center (MRC) at the MBL. In her end-of-programme report, Ms Lau said that, “I was proud to be one of the lucky interns in the MRC. Before we even began our daily experiments, we had to perform a series of daily duties beginning at 7:30 am with cleaning the many animal-holding tanks in the facility. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were also fish-feeding days. Carrying out these duties allowed me to meet and get to know many of the other MRC interns who came from all over the USA.” Ms Lau is also especially appreciative of the support provided by Dr Omi Ma and the friends she made in Dr Lindell’s laboratory.
*O’Neil GW, Carmichael CA, Goepfert TJ, Fulton JM, Knothe G, Lau CPL, Lindell SR, Mohammady NGE, Van Mooy BAS, Reddy CM. (2012). Beyond fatty acid methyl esters: Expanding the renewable carbon profile with alkenones from Isochrysis sp. Energy & Fuels. Doi:10.1021/ef3001828.
**Mohammady NGE, Rieken CW, Lindell SR, Reddy CM, Taha HM, Lau CPL, Carmichael CA (2012). Age of nitrogen deficient microalgal cells is a key factor for maximizing lipid content. Research Journal of Phytochemistry 6: 42-53.