At the Center of Research in the Western Pacific
Guam NSF EPSCoR’s Collaborations for Optimizing Research Ecosystems (ECORE) project is inviting proposals for its 2026–2027 Seed Funding Grant, offering $50,000 awards to support innovative, hypothesis-driven research across the island.
The University of Guam (UOG) has announced an extension of the 17th University of Guam Conference on Island Sustainability (CIS2026), expanding the event through April 26 with the addition of two days of programming in Saipan, further strengthening its partnership with Northern Marianas College (NMC).
The University of Guam is now accepting presentation proposals for its 17th Conference on Island Sustainability, scheduled to take place April 20-24, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency Guam.
A retired shell enthusiast recently donated thousands of shells to the Guam NSF EPSCoR Biorepository, many of which were collected on Guam during the 1960s, to be added to its historical collection.
In 2024, Guam NSF EPSCoR senior researcher Christopher Lobban, Ph.D., received an award from the Japanese Society of Diatomology for his paper “Disymmetria reticulata, gen. nov., sp. nov. (Mediophyceae: Thalassiosirales), a new genus in Lauderiaceae emend., and transfer of Lauderia excentrica.” Lobban, a UOG professor emeritus of biology, is the first non-Japanese member of the organization to receive an award.
In April 2025, the University of Guam welcomed visiting researchers as part of an ongoing collaboration on the development of a new research instrument that can be used to assess the bleaching risk of different types of coral.
University of Guam NSF EPSCoR Graduate Research Assistant Lauren Kallen defended her Master’s thesis—a research project that represents the first study of its kind on Guam, focusing on understanding the population dynamics of Drupella fragum, a sea snail that feeds on coral tissue and can be found on shallow reef flats around the island.
The University of Guam NSF EPSCoR GECCO Biorepository has partnered with the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., for the DNA sequencing of marine organisms.
Off the shores of Guam is one of the most complex marine systems in the United States, home to thousands of organisms – many of which are still being documented and identified to this day. The Guam NSF EPSCoR GECCO Biorepository is part of an on-going effort to understand those organisms as well as their habitats.
In preparation for her master’s thesis defense this summer, Anela Duenas, a Guam NSF EPSCoR graduate assistant, presented her proposal, “Ecophysiology of Coral Species Replacement on Reef Flats of Guam,” that examines the relationship of the microalgae Symbiodiniaceae with reef-building corals Acropora pulchra and Pavona decussata.