The International Nannoplankton Association (INA) Foundation awards one of the first Okada-McIntye Graduate Research Fellowships to Justin Jorge R. Padre, a graduate student of the Nannoworks Laboratory and a Teaching Associate at the National Institute of Geological Sciences. The INA Foundation awards the research grant to students or early career scientists whose research focuses on any aspect of nannoplankton studies related to modern/extant nannoplankton which includes their laboratory culture studies and ecological dynamics through seawater, sediment trap, and seafloor sediment records. The award honors the works of Dr. Hisatake Okada and Dr. Andrew McIntyre.
Mr. Padre's research work is related to the use of lipid biomarkers and calcareous nannofossil abundances and their implications on paleoceanographic reconstructions over Southeastern Philippines. Part of the goals of his research is to of dominant alkenone-producing marine haptophytes abundances (particuarly Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica) with sedimentary alkenone records to assess their fidelity in reconstructing sea surface temperature and productivity over the western tropical Pacific. Mr. Padre was also a Visiting Research Fellow at Brown University, USA under the UP OIL COOPERATE Program as part of the fulfillment of his research.
