Students awarded 2025 Guy Harvey and Florida Sea Grant Fellowships

Two FIU students have been named 2025 Guy Harvey and Florida Sea Grant Fellows. 

Among the eight individuals in Florida recognized with awards are biology Ph.D. candidate Morgan Jarrett and biology Ph.D. student Rainer Moy-Huwyler. 

The fellows program promotes the work of graduate students in the marine conservation field. Each fellow receives a combined $5,000 award from the Guy Harvey Foundation and the Florida Sea Grant to support their research and academic work.

Jarrett studies how the morphology of the gills and body of the Caribbean spiny lobster and Caribbean king crab influence their physiology and behavior, particularly how the size of their respiratory organs affects oxygen extraction efficiency. This research focuses on how behaviors may change under environmental stressors such as high temperature and reduced oxygen availability.

“This information is vital, especially for the lobsters, which are an important fisheries species in Florida, as behavioral changes could result in negative outcomes for the fisheries,” Jarrett said.

Jarrett plans to use the award on research travel expenses, to purchase lab materials and to defry the cost of publishing her dissertation.

Moy-Huwyler’s research focuses on analyzing the metabolic processes of predatory fish in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. By understanding how these species utilize energy, his work supports efforts to conserve marine ecosystems and enhance the management of protected habitats.

"All animals expend energy," Moy-Huwyler said. "By studying their energetics, we open doors to understanding why animals behave the way they do. We can apply this information further to explain how they interact with their ecosystems, other species and humans."

Moy-Huwyler plans to use the award to purchase video camera equipment needed to complete the final stage of his dissertation. He hopes to provide data on how rising temperatures and management decisions affect fish and coral reefs from a metabolic perspective. 

"As environments change around the world, we might even use energetics to examine the effects of these changes on populations and predict if and how they might adapt," Moy-Huwyler said.

Jarrett and Moy-Huwyler join previous Guy Harvey and Florida Sea Grant awardee William Sample, an FIU Ph.D. student who received the fellowship in 2024.