Danielle Mitchell, a student in the President's Scholars Program at California State University, Long Beach, is one of three California students to be awarded a fellowship grant for research study at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts this summer.

Fellows are selected on a competitive basis with final decisions based on the applicant's previous academic and scientific achievements and promise as future ocean scientists or ocean engineers. Only 26 of the 197 applicants were selected as fellows.

"I'll be looking at how jellyfish have evolved to avoid and be invisible to predators," said Mitchell, a senior who will graduate June 2 with two bachelor of science degrees in marine biology and biology plus a minor in chemistry.

Last summer Mitchell was one of six undergraduates out of 75 applicants chosen to participate in the first year of a nationally recognized internship program funded by the National Science Foundation at the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center. While there, she worked on a research project on the reproductive system of a deep-sea cerianthid anemone.

"Danielle is extremely intuitive and seems to grasp scientific concepts with surprising ease," said Professor of Biological Sciences Christopher Lowe. "She shows a genuine eagerness to learn and enjoys new challenges. I have no doubt she'll be an excellent scientist."