Today was Gabi Vidad’s thesis defense. It was amazing! Great work Gabi!

I’d like to say I wrote these amazing words, but I did not. They were written by someone after attending her talk on Research Day. I couldn’t agree more though.

[Gabi] shared findings from her coral reef mapping project, focused on islands in the Philippines.  Her work has important implications for the future of our oceans and communities that depend on the natural resources it provides.  It appears that illegal fishing is one factor leading to the deterioration of these reefs. Despite laws set in place, this activity is still prevalent due to the capital it produces, both socially and economically. I appreciated that Gabi considered these factors, as scientific issues are deeply tied to socioeconomic ones. 

Gabi was able to do this work by coding satellite images, a process which is free.  This means future students could expand on this project without funding, if they wished.  Her project is a perfect example of taking information we overlook everyday, like google earth images, to investigate important issues for our world.  It is inspiring to see someone take a passion to fuel their academic pursuits.  

Since Gabi joined the physics major three years ago, I have been blessed to mentor her in a couple different projects. She is such a fun, brilliant student to mentor. She is one of the best students I have had in my research group, although she ended up doing this thesis research project with Professor Raphe Kudela (@ UC Santa Cruz). Talk about a good team. WOW!

One of the hardest things about being an physics professor at the undergraduate level is sometimes you have to let your awesome students pursue their dreams and not force them to work with lasers. Something that is really special about Gabi is that she really blazed her own trail. It would have been easy for her to do straight up physics projects while at Adelphi, but she always found a way to refocus her projects to helping the environment.

Folks! Watch Ms. Vidad’s career closely. She is someone that is going to change the world.