Colby Students Study the Belgrade Lakes
Six Colby students have been putting their chemistry, physics, and math backgrounds to use this summer, working alongside 7 Lakes Alliance’s water quality team. Splitting their time between water quality monitoring on the lake and analyzing samples in the lab, Colby Summer Scholars gain invaluable field experience researching everything from algae to sediment to large-scale modeling.
Hailing from across the U.S. and from as far away as Romania, these students are united in their excitement to explore the Belgrade Lakes region. Dede Tindall is a member of the Class of 2028, who majors in Biochemistry and Economics and hails from Maryland. She trains on Messalonskee Lake with the Colby Women’s Crew Team, alongside fellow intern Alena Rossi, and is especially looking forward to taking samples and conducting research from a boat. Rossi (’28, Math and Physics, from Colorado) is studying the emergence of Gloeotrichia algae on Great and Long Ponds. Bianca Hulub (’28, Ecology, Romania) is eager to apply her robotics background in computer modeling to work on large scale data science.
Several Colby summer research students were introduced to limnology, the study of freshwater aquatic ecosystems by Colby chemistry professor Dr. Whitney King. Ian Schnabel (’29, Chemistry, Minnnesota) has taken two courses with Prof. King, including Aqueous Chemistry, and Sjoen Munk (’28, Chemistry, Nebraska), has been working as a research assistant for Prof. King, which inspired him to pursue summer research at 7 Lakes. Similarly, Max Johnson (’28, Math, Massachusetts), was inspired by King’s class to combine his math skills with his love for the outdoors.
7 Lakes has a tradition of partnering with Colby College for research, laboratory testing, and student engagement. For instance, last year, Colby students worked to sample trees in a recently conserved 172-acre parcel of land on Long Pond, helping to identify it as an ecologically valuable old-growth forest.
Brynne Robbins is outreach coordinator for the 7 Lakes Alliance.
<— Previous Article • Summaries • Next Article —>
©2026 by Summertime in the Belgrades. All rights reserved.