Diving into World-Class Marine Research with Study Abroad in Australia
I received the call around 6 p.m. on Sunday. After a day hunkered down in the library, slogging through a lengthy metagenomics assignment for my bioinformatics class, my brain is mush. I’m about to call it an early night when the ring tone I had set for this occasion frightens me into action. For the past week, I have been anxiously anticipating this moment, and now I’m in for one of the longest days of my undergraduate research career.
I quickly grabbed my designated “go” bag and caught my ride to the Australian Institute for Marine Science (AIMS) for coral spawning—an annual event where corals reproduce, sending bundles of eggs and sperm into the water column. At AIMS, this occurs in tanks containing corals collected from the Great Barrier Reef.
When I accepted this research internship five months ago, I didn’t quite expect it would include an entire night of sitting in darkness waiting for corals to spawn. And I definitely didn’t imagine this night would come after an entire day of trying to align genomic sequences in R.
But this is actually the best part of the experience. I’m flat out exhausted, but when I hear that phone call, that is immediately forgotten, replaced by the opportunity in front of me. I know how lucky I am to participate in spawning at AIMS, and when I begin to feel like this experience isn’t real, I pinch myself.
From cold emails to midnight data collection
In fact, I’ve never had an interest in this type of research. Prior to enrolling at Emory, I sent a wide array of cold emails to potential advisors about conducting research in their labs while I was abroad. I had no expectations of getting a response, because a vast majority of trying to get into research looks a lot like sending cold emails, expressing your interest, and then crossing your fingers that someone responds and has space for you to join their lab.
I was lucky that my emails were well received, and I was subsequently accepted to conduct research supporting a PhD candidate project. Along with this placement, I enrolled in a Science Research Internship course to earn credit for 100 hours of research on this project. Months later, I’m standing under a red light at 10 p.m., collecting coral sperm in a plastic cup.
Once we have collected enough spawn, I hurry to a separate part of the lab with actual lights, preparing for the hardest part of the evening’s work. Thankfully, a large portion of the next step doesn’t rest on my shoulders. Even still, I’m stressed, as the grad student I’m working with carefully makes single-parent crosses, suitable for this experiment. I watch carefully, asking as many questions as my brain can come up with. I feel like a sponge, soaking up every bit of information. Despite the fact that I’m running on fumes, I am wide awake as we transfer our newly fertilized coral larvae into cones, where they will live until they reach competency.
“I pinch myself again, giddy that I’m doing research in Australia at one of the most advanced marine research facilities.”
The hardest part is over. At 2 a.m., we get in the car and make the 40-minute drive back towards Townsville. On campus, I say goodnight to the grad student. It’s not until I get to my room and flop down onto my mattress face-first that I realize this: I may be exhausted, covered in stinky, artificial sea water, and faced with the prospect of a repeat tomorrow night, but I’m assured—this is what I’m meant to do.
Advice for undergrad researchers
Research presents unique and complex challenges that are difficult to navigate. Now, try to navigate those challenges as an undergraduate, balancing classes, social life, and self-care. On top of that, add a foreign country, where you’re completely out of your comfort zone. It’s a monumental task, but this experience at James Cook University has taught me three key things about doing research as an undergraduate:
- Love what you do and love it honestly. The hard work will come easier if you’re excited to be there—and the stress will be easier to bear.
- Be flexible and expect failure. Ultimately, mistakes will happen. One of the greatest skills I’ve begun to adopt is learning how to fail and being okay with it. Failure—especially in a new, unfamiliar environment—can teach you a lot about resilience as a student and a researcher. It makes you better!
- Smile often. One day you’ll look back on all the amazing things you did and wish you could do it all again.
Conducting research while studying abroad has been challenging, stressful, but most importantly, it’s been incredibly rewarding. Getting to collaborate with researchers outside of my home university has allowed me to form important connections with scientists at the top of their field. Considering I’m going into a career as a marine biologist, there is no better place to be than James Cook University.
I pinch myself again, giddy at the fact that I’m doing research in Australia at one of the most advanced marine research facilities, quite literally on the cutting edge of work in my field. I smile as I finally start to fall asleep, knowing this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I’m not going to waste a single second of it.
Tallulah S. | Emory University | James Cook University, Townsville, Australia | Fall 2025