Open University PhD student Luis Miguel Montilla undertook his viva voce examination on January 18th, defending a doctoral thesis entitled: Nested biogeochemical interactions in seagrass ecosystems.

His Examination Panel included Dr. Raffaella Casotti from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Naples, IT), an expert in marine microbial ecology, and Dr. Harald Gruber-Vodicka from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (Bremen, DE), an expert in the field of chemosynthetic symbioses.

The viva examination was chaired by Dr. Salvatore D’Aniello, Senior scientist at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn.

The viva involved an in-depth tow-hours interrogation of his doctoral research thesis – and was viewed by both Examiners and student alike as a very constructive experience, discussing science with experts interested in the science presented.

Congratulations to Luis – the first Marine Symbiomes student to successfully defend!!

Also, well done to the supervisory team, led by Dr Ulisse Cardini, and thanks to the Examiners for taking the time to review Luis’ thesis!

Luis is pictured above and below, during the post-viva celebrations.