Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) researcher, Ms. Shirley Koshiba, has been accepted into a Masters Degree and Internship Program of the Pacific Leaders’ Educational Assistance for Development of States (Pacific-LEADS). Ms. Koshiba will be attending the University of Tsukuba in Japan for two and half years, earning her degree in Environmental Sciences with a full scholarship.
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Ms. Koshiba has contributed much to the research work at PICRC. She first began her research work at the Center in 2011. During her five years as a researcher, Ms. Koshiba focused mainly on social economic studies. Her research showed the equal importance of biological and ecological information with socio-economic information that can help resource managers in effective management of Palau’s conservation areas.
Apart from working with people on land, she helps out with ecological and biological surveys in the water with other researchers. In addition, she has attended, presented, and facilitated at various conferences, workshops, and symposiums in Palau and the region. Her latest presentation was at the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Hawaii earlier this summer. Her major accomplishments thus far include written work in PICRC technical reports and two published articles on International scientific journals; copies of her published work can be found at PICRC.
Ms. Koshiba is the daughter of Fritz and Martha Koshiba. She graduated from Palau Mission Academy in 2005 and went on to study in Hawaii where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the University of Hawaii in Manoa in 2011. Ms. Koshiba expresses her joy and excitement in the coming years as she steps back into the arena of school once again after quite some time.
The Palau International Coral Reef Center is proud of Ms. Koshiba’s accomplishments thus far and support her decision to further her education in Japan. PICRC encourages and strives to create opportunities such as this to help build its staff capacities that will help contribute to PICRC’s and Palau’s marine conservation and management efforts in the region and around the world. [/restrict]