Dr. Koty Sharp “Lessons from Rhode Island’s State Coral: insights into climate change, microbiomes, and animal resilience and recovery.”

The mighty Rhode Island state coral – say, what?  And you thought all corals were in warm waters…

Come hear Dr. Koty Sharp, Roger Williams University biology professor and Director of RWU’s CEED and the eponymous Sharp Lab, speak on “Lessons from the Rhode Island State Coral.” She will be speaking at the Block Island Maritime Institute (BIMI) on Tuesday, August 26th, at 7 p.m.

Since 2016, Dr. Sharp has co-convened conferences to gather researchers and educators who work on the local, temperate coral Astrangia poculata – which she worked to designate as Rhode Island’s official State Coral, and together this group is working to establish this coral as a model organism for coral biology and for the broad study of animal-microbe symbioses.  Her work was also featured in the August 5, 2025 edition of the Providence Journal.

Dr. Sharp is the Director of the Roger Williams University Center for Economic and Environmental Development, and an Associate Professor in Biology, Marine Biology, & Environmental Science. She received her B.A. in Biology at Mount Holyoke College and her PhD from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego in 2006. She has formerly held positions with the Smithsonian Institution, New England Biolabs, and Eckerd College. Her field and laboratory research is centered around marine animal microbiomes and the chemicals that microbes produce to benefit their host animals. Her research at RWU focuses on microbiomes in tropical and temperate corals, identification of bioactive compounds produced by coral-associated bacteria, and exploration of the potential applications of naturally occurring beneficial bacteria as probiotics.