MEDS 2022
Pronouns: he/him/his
Bio
Charles Hendrickson graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2021 with a BS in Marine Biology. As an undergraduate student, Charles pursued his interests in sustainable fisheries and marine conservation by assisting with coral reef conservation efforts in Fiji and completing the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). While volunteering in Fiji, he conducted SCUBA surveys to collect long-term data on Fijian marine invertebrates in order to inform local communities and support the development of a sustainable resource management strategy. At SURF, he assessed Nassau Grouper spawning aggregation demographics by analyzing diver operated stereo-video footage. These research experiences demonstrated the necessity of efficiently planning and executing the cleaning, wrangling, analysis, and visualization of data in tackling marine conservation challenges. Additionally, Charles observed the power of leveraging technology to better monitor the oceans while assisting researchers with remotely operated and autonomous vehicles aboard the R/V Sikuliaq as a National Science Foundation - STEMSEAS crew member. As a master’s candidate of Environmental Data Science at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara, Charles hopes to advance scientific knowledge by extracting value from data and utilizing new technologies to monitor, model, and manage the Earth’s marine ecosystems at the same scale as the problems we face.