Seems like my life in Hawaii was a long time ago. My name is Yuuki Justin Niimi and I am currently doing my Masters in Ocean Science at University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Living in UK is a whole new world for me: from the typical English accent to the lovely tea drinking culture, I personally think I made a great choice trying to study away from home. Currently, I am starting to write my proposal for my deep-sea taxonomy project. Overall, I am really lucky to study in Southampton since it has the National Oceanography Center. Many well-known oceanography scientists from UK come here to do research, which makes it a great place to meet scientists from similar fields. I am thankful for my experience and support UH gave me for me to be the person who I am.

Although I was born in New York, I have grown up in Hawaii since the age of 6 and proudly consider it to be my home. Looking back, I realize that my upbringing within the culture of Hawaii combined with my education at UH Manoa, has played an incredibly large role in the development of my appreciation for cultural diversity, nature, art, and the sciences.

I learned how to SCUBA dive at the age of 14, and made my first “open-water” dive in a cold, dark quarry in Ontario, Canada.  I think I saw two fish; however, this experience sparked my interest in marine biology, and my desire to study in warmer waters, so I began my college education in Florida with the intention of pursuing a career in marine biology.

In 2005, while I was writing the last bits of my dissertation at UH, a job offer from the Smithsonian arrived in my email inbox.  It was an opportunity to continue to do research on invasive marine species, work with some of the top people in the field of invasion biology, and help to develop a laboratory based in the San Fransisco Bay Area.