Education and career
Fonnegra earned her bachelor's degree (2003) in marine biology from the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University and her master's degree (2006) in marine biology from the National University of Colombia. [1] In 2007 she taught at Colombia's Universidad Pedagogic Nacional before moving to the University of Alberta where she was a graduate student from 2007 to 2008. In 2009, she transferred to Nova Southeastern University, in Florida, where she graduated in 2014 with a PhD in oceanography and marine biology. [1] [2] Fonnegra's dissertation was "Increase of Excavating Sponges on Caribbean Coral Reefs: Reproduction, Dispersal, and Coral Deterioration". [3]
Fonnegra was a postdoctoral researcher at the Coral Reef Restoration, Assessment & Monitoring (CRRAM) Laboratory - Nova Southeastern University in 2014-2015, later at the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies (CMES) - University of the Virgin Islands in 2016-2017, and also at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences - University of Mississippi in 2018. In 2018, she became an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University, where she has a joint appointment between the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and the Harriet Wilkes Honors College. [2] She is known for her research on the marine sponge Cliona delitrix, [4] an organism that grows between the calcium carbonate that forms the skeleton of coral reefs and that, through an excavating action, gradually deteriorates the coral. [5] In the Caribbean Sea the development of this sponge has accelerated in recent years, resulting in the gradual erosion of corals, altering the ecosystem. [6] [7]
