Student earns Ph.D.

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Gabriella “Gabby” Ahmadia, a 1999 Waiakea High School graduate, received a Ph.D. in coastal and marine system science from Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi in May. She is the daughter of Jamil and Phyllis Ahmadia of Keaau.

Gabriella “Gabby” Ahmadia, a 1999 Waiakea High School graduate, received a Ph.D. in coastal and marine system science from Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi in May. She is the daughter of Jamil and Phyllis Ahmadia of Keaau.

Ahmadia’s dissertation was on “Elucidating Factors Structuring Cryptobenthic Coral Reef Fish Assemblages,” based on research done on Pacific reefs in Indonesia, Tahiti and Ponapei.

Ahmadia also recently published “Cryptobenthic Fish Biodiversity and Microhabitat Use in Healthy and Degraded Coral Reefs in SE Sulawasi, Indonesia.”

which she co-authored with Frank L. Pezold and David J. Smith in the journal Marine Diversity. She has returned as a lead scientist for Project Wallacea in Sulawasi this summer.