Join us for a special lecture on the impact of climate change on coral and the role of restoration in reef conservation with Dr. Carly D. Kenkel, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at USC Dornsife, and Adib Mustofa, Marine and Environmental Biology Doctoral Student at the University of Southern California. This program complements the exhibition Mulyana: Modular Utopia, which is composed of intricately constructed, knit modules of marine life sculptures that vividly portray an unadulterated underwater world. Followed by light refreshments.

This program is sponsored in part by the USC Office of Sustainability, the Arts & Climate Collective, and USC Visions and Voices.

About the speakers:

Dr. Carly D. Kenkel is a Gablian Assistant Professor of Biological Science in Marine and Environmental Biology at the University of Southern California. Her lab studies the eco-evolutionary dynamics structuring populations of tropical reef-building coral to understand patterns of adaptive diversity, predict responses to global climate change and inform management interventions aimed at conserving genetic diversity and restoring ecosystem function. She is a 2019 Sloan Research Fellow and received the International Coral Reef Society’s Early-Career Scientist Award in 2020. Dr. Kenkel is also a recognized expert and active participant in several inter-institutional working and advisory groups, most recently serving on the steering committee for the NSF Research Coordination Network on Evolution in Changing Seas and the Genetics Working Group of the Coral Restoration Consortium.

Adib Mustofa is originally from Indonesia, and he earned his master's degree in marine conservation from the University of Tasmania in 2016. He worked as an MPA and Biodiversity officer at Seram Seas at WWF-Indonesia for 1.5 years before working as a lecturer at the Institute Teknologi Sumatera, Lampung Province, since 2018 (currently on a leave of absence). He joined CEE Lab with Dr. Carly Kenkel and is interested in studying the genetics of reef-building corals that have the resiliency to climate change scenarios and the symbiotic relationship between corals and microalgae to improve coral reef restoration efforts. He is also one of the Fulbright scholars at USC.