Kaysea Suzana | FIUURJ Media Coordinator

Majoring in Pre-Med with a specialization in Marine Biology, Estefany Carvajal shares her experience in presenting at the 2023 UR FIU conference. Carvajal’s motivation comes from her enthusiasm for sharing information.

“I’m a big fan of the scientific community… I believe that in science it’s important to present what you found to keep the students and the community [informed],” Carvajal said.

This wasn’t Carvajal’s first time presenting her findings. Carvajal presented at the 2023 Biosymposium, a conference for scientific topics, at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus. When UR FIU rolled around, she already an idea of how a conference would go.

But UR FIU brought its own pang of anxiety for her.

“I felt a different kind of nervousness though because I had people from federal agencies asking me questions about the microplastic problem and what I thought could be solutions,” Carvajal said.

It was this atmosphere that paradoxically, she enjoyed.

“Being asked for ideas on possible solutions made me feel that I could make more of a difference in my community.” Carvajal said.

Carvajal is not alone in her excitement regarding learning about science, sharing findings, and distributing research. According to her, research presentations in the field Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, and more were all housed in this conference, including topics like the use of nanoparticles in engineering. This neighboring influx of research even slightly worried Carvajal.

“I was initially worried about how my research would be viewed because it is niche. I thought people would not care for it or find it interesting and felt my poster was the one people would skip over, but that did not happen, and it made me realize that my notions of self-doubt are just you making them up in your head,” she said.

In terms of things she wished she had known before the conference, Carvajal wishes she had asked more questions and showed more interest in people’s research who could have collaborated with her work. However, the entire experience was not one of self-doubt and worrying thoughts. She found strength, excitement, and a more well-established sense of comfort in being able to present her research again.

“[The conference] was a very positive experience. It made me more confident in my ability to present my research. Which I have never done before, this was an independent project. It made me more confident in asking questions and answering questions within the scientific research community,” Carvajal said.

To her, it was a pleasant surprise that fellow researchers showed interest in her research topic. The conversation extended past the conference room, with her receiving continued interest from many fellow presenters and guests, including officials from federal agencies who shared contact information in order to keep in touch with her.

For Carvajal, public health is her desired focus and an important focus of her research. Her research interests are heavily focused on microplastics, specifically on its presence in water and the health effects it can have on marine animal reproduction and its analogous impact on human health. She mentions an important aspect of study: the fact that there is a gap in research for microplastics in marine protected areas.

“I felt [my research] was going to be overlooked because there is not too much knowledge on marine protected areas…It was hard for me to even find microplastic measurements for these areas; it’s just not there yet.”

Marine protected areas refer to areas around naturally occurring bodies of water that are used as refuge for animals, environments, habitats and used for research purposes. Lastly, Carvajal’s work has made some noise, with her research being presented in high-traffic media outlets like Telemundo and NBC. Carvajal also highly credited her research partner, Amanda Di Perna, for her collaboration and support.

Students like Caravajal will be presenting  at UR FIU April 2, 2024. The deadline to apply has passed, but presenters can use their same research to be published on FIUURJ’s next edition that will open for abstract submission later this year.