Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe is spending two weeks in June at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Bocas del Toro field station on the Caribbean coast of Panama. She is one of 11 experts who are leading a workshop titled "Meiofauna Diversity and Taxonomy."

Sponsored by the Encyclopedia of Life and the National Science Foundation, the workshop aims to expand graduate students’ skills in the collection, identification and preservation of meiofauna, microscopic animals found in marine sediments. Smythe will be the lead taxonomic expert on nematodes, commonly known as round worms. Twelve students from seven countries will be participating.