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What I Did on my Summer Vacation

October 11, 2010

Elizabeth Halliday spent the summer at the beach, but she wasn’t swimming or sunbathing. Instead, the MIT/WHOI Joint Program student used her summer vacation to study the causes of bacterial-induced beach closures in Provincetown. In 2009, there were more than 18,000 beach closings and advisories around the country. For three months, Halliday cultured bacteria that she found in the sand and water and monitored environmental conditions near Provincetown. This winter, she hopes to combine this data with molecular analyses of the bacteria to determine the origin of the micro-organisms as well as the conditions that cause them to multiply and shut down area beaches. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)