Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Biology major Marissa McNamara (C ’07) is spending her senior year with the fish.

Working with Dr. Hamilton in the Georgetown biology lab, McNamara examines the DNA in striped bass scales. After winning a stipend from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute this past summer, her first responsibility was to go to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in Annapolis to retrieve the fish scale samples from the 1970s and 80s.

McNamara, who also received a GUROP, collected hundreds of samples and is now working on extracting fish DNA from the samples. All of this will lead to her senior biology thesis, where she plans to work on the analysis of changes in the population genetics of Chesapeake Bay striped bass from 1970 to the present. McNamara will work on amplifying and sequencing genes from the scale sample DNA to determine if changes in genetic variation occurred over time due to a population bottleneck.

While in Annapolis, Marissa also had some time out on the water on the Nanticoke River with DNR biologists during a survey to collect striped bass. She also spent a day on the Chesapeake tagging Atlantic croaker, “I caught at least four or five croaker, and tagged some of them.”

Pursuing a career in marine biology, McNamara expects to continue her studies at the University of Queensland, Australia, after she graduates from Georgetown, continuing a project she began during her junior year abroad.

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