Alumni You Should Meet – Jessica Bouwmeester (PhD ’13) by Melissa Pappas (MS '17)

Alumna Jessica Bouwmeester was born and raised in Switzerland and traveled abroad to the south of France to pursue a degree in life sciences, which led her to her interest in the marine sciences. Returning back to Switzerland for her Masters, Bouwmeester chose to study organisms far from home - coral in the Red Sea in Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt. Her Masters project was on the ecology of corals, which got her hooked on coral reef science. Several years later, her research at KAUST found a niche in the reproduction of corals.

A Passion for Coral

Bouwmeester’s affinity for Middle Eastern coral reefs continued even after completing her PhD at KAUST in 2013 as she went on to multiple postdoc positions researching the taxonomy and biodiversity of corals and ecosystem-based management in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Now, Bouwmeester works in Hawaii for the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute as a postdoc studying the reproductive physiology and cryobiology of corals in the Pacific. However, she is still very active as a collaborative researcher at KAUST on projects spanning coral reproduction and diversity on the central Saudi coast of the Red Sea.

“In 2009, KAUST was in its first year as a university, and I was looking for a PhD position. My uncle had heard about KAUST and encouraged me to apply,” said Bouwmeester. “And at that time, I had already spent seven years studying and working on corals of the Red Sea, so it seemed like a perfect fit for the PhD I was looking for.”

However, Bouwmeester took much needed time off between her Masters and her PhD.

“While I knew that I wanted to get my PhD after my Masters, I also knew I needed to spend more time underwater and mature into the person and scientist I wanted to become,” said Bouwmeester. “But when I was ready to start the doctorate, I was well directed to KAUST and Professor Mike Berumen’s Reef Ecology Lab.”

Diving Into Red Sea Research

Bouwmeester dove into a project on coral connectivity in the Red Sea, but quickly found out that there was fundamental research missing that would be essential to understanding these corals.

“As I started my research project, I found out that there was no information available regarding when corals spawn in the central Red Sea. Data was available for a dozen coral species in the Gulf of Aqaba, in the Northern Red Sea, but that was 1,000 km further north. It turned out that the spawning time for corals in the central Red Sea was very different,” said Bouwmeester. “Alongside some microscope examinations of coral tissue to determine how close corals were to spawning, I had to Image by Riley Perry                             spend a lot of time in the water on night dives, waiting for corals to spawn, releasing eggs and sperm packed in tight bundles, or separately. By the time I left KAUST, I had collected spawning timing information for nearly a hundred coral species.”

Data Collection through Night Diving

As many divers know, night dives are a completely new way to experience a reef seen in the daylight.

“I had already spent a lot of time underwater, studying coral reefs for many years, but a night dive is always a whole new world,” said Bouwmeester. “This was the time you could see animals sleeping that are usually out and about during the day and when you could see animals hunting or feeding that were usually sleeping during the day.”

Bouwmeester describes a night on the reef waiting for corals to spawn.

“One clear sign of coral spawning that we would look out for was butterfly fish actively swimming and feeding at night,” said Bouwmeester. “You never see butterfly fish at night since they are normally sleeping, but when a free meal is released in the form of lipid-rich eggs or egg-sperm bundles, these fish wake up and try to get a midnight snack.”

“We would be swimming back and forth over a section of the reef waiting for the spawning to start, and then once it did, we would race to each colony, writing data down as fast as possible. We were trying to record all the essential information as we watched these spawning events take over the reef,” said Bouwmeester. “Of course, my limitation on night dives is that I get cold really quickly, but the data we gather is always worth it.”

After tackling big questions about coral reproduction during her PhD, Bouwmeester spent another year at KAUST as a postdoc working on the taxonomy of corals. She then continued with a postdoc at the University of Illinois and postdoc at the University of Qatar before she landed her current role at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

“I now work on the cryopreservation of coral gametes and other coral cells as a tactic to preserve these beautiful organisms for the future,” said Bouwmeester. “Cryopreservation and IVF technology have been extremely successful in assisting reproduction for humans but also for wildlife such as giant pandas, so why not expand that technique to corals,” asks Bouwmeester and the rest of her research team. “It turns out that corals require techniques adapted to their physiology, and we’ve also had to develop equipment that can be used in remote locations, where most coral reefs are found. We have had to pioneer a way forward for coral gamete cold storage, and it’s been a really interesting and hopeful project to work on.”

Again, Bouwmeester found herself tracking the spawning of corals, an event essential to the cryopreservation work her lab was conducting.

“I initially worked with coral reproduction in Hawaii,” said Bouwmeester. “Luckily, spawning timing is very consistent and relatively well known for most Hawaiian species. Therefore, in the spawning season, from June to September, we need all hands on deck to monitor, record and collect gametes of spawning coral, in addition to running experiments or freezing large batches of sperm or larvae for long-term storage. It’s a full team effort from collection to maintenance in the flow through tanks at the lab, to freezing the cells.”

Ongoing Partnerships with KAUST

Bouwmeester’s time spent on many different research teams around the world has allowed her to reflect on the aspects of KAUST that truly opened doors.

“One of the most valuable experiences I had at KAUST was the live-aboard Red Sea research cruises as part of Mike’s Lab,” said Bouwmeester. “As a student invited on these cruises, I was not only immersed in the marine world of the Red Sea, I was exposed to the latest research on Red Sea taxonomy, biodiversity and ecology, throwing the doors wide-open to potential collaborative projects with invited scientific experts from around the world.”

“KAUST is one big family, and the connections you make there last your lifetime,” said Bouwmeester. “The doors that you can open at KAUST will never close.”

Bouwmeester continues to stay connected with the KAUST community, speaking at WEP 2022 at the Alumni Lecture Series, and working on many projects with marine science professors. She hopes to transition into a professorship role herself and will be on the lookout for incoming students to join her lab.