Janel Roberge, a junior biology major at Saint Michael's College, traveled with her professor and students from another institution, to the annual international Aquatic Sciences meeting Feb. 13-18 in Puerto Rico. Ms. Roberge, daughter of Janet and Normand Roberge of Milan, N.H., graduated from Berlin High School before coming to Saint Michael's, located in Burlington, Vt. (one of the top 10 college towns in America).

Ms. Roberge presented research that resulted from an extensive Streams Project carried out in Vermont last summer, coordinated by Saint Michael's biologist, Dr. Declan McCabe. The project involved students from nearby University of Vermont, Puerto Rican students who did research in Vermont last summer, and a number of other summer researchers.

At the conference Ms. Roberge and Professor McCabe and other participants visited two of the project's high school partners from Puerto Rico, visited four stream sites where they took samples, and visited the rain forest and the "bioluminescent" bay. They also attended numerous research presentation sessions at the week-long conference.

Research project

Ms. Roberge's research, carried out with Professor McCabe, is titled, "The Effects of Phosphorus on Benthic Macroinvetertebrates in the Lake Champlain Basin."

Professor McCabe presented two other papers at the conference, fully called American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Aquatic Sciences Meeting. One of Professor McCabe's presentations was co-authored with two Saint Michael's recent graduates, Alexandra Canepa (Saint Michael's College class of 2010 and Ian Myers (Saint Michael's College class of 2009).