Myesa is a first year undergraduate at the University of Washington. She is an oceanography major with a focus in ocean biology. VISONS’14 will be her first cruise to the open ocean. From a young age, she has been fascinated by zoology, particularly the strange benthic organisms of the sea, and the history nautical exploration. She is very excited to join the team to help install this major, cutting edge observatory. Her areas of interest include the ecosystems at the bottom of the sea floor that flourish around hydrothermal vents, and the genomics of the chemosynthetic microbes that support these communities. She has been working in a biological oceanography lab at UW since the summer after her senior year of high school.