Rikuya Kurita, a second year Master’s student at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, received the Best Poster Presentation Award at the PICES-2017 Annual Meeting, an international conference hosted by the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), held from September 22 (Fri) to October 1 (Sun) at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia.
　
　PICES is an intergovernmental scientific organization aiming to promote and coordinate marine research in the northern North Pacific and adjacent seas. In the Annual Meetings, research outcomes are presented and shared by researchers from universities and research institutions around the world including the member nations of PICES (the U.S., Canada, Russia, South Korea, China, and Japan).
　
　This year, researchers came together to discuss under the theme of the meeting: “Environmental changes in the North Pacific and impacts on biological resources and ecosystem services.”

　Kurita’s awarded research was titled, “High-resolution monitoring of phytoplankton communities using spectral fluorescence signatures.” He conducted monitoring on the marine environment at Sagami Bay, Kanagawa and constructed a model for predicting phytoplankton’ spatial distribution using fluorescence.

　Kurita commented, “It is a great honor to receive the Best Poster Presentation Award at the PICES-2017 Annual Meeting. I owe this achievement to the people who have supported me. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation to my research advisor Professor Kuwahara, Professor Toda, co-researchers from other universities, and classmates of the Laboratory of Restoration Ecology. With this award as an encouragement, I will continue to work even harder.”