09/24/2026
Come one, come all: The Department of Biological Sciences is proud to announce that we now have research vessels. Small ones. Very small ones. Built to tow mini-trawls made from baby tights so we can go hunt down microplastics in local waterways — real science, tiny boat energy.
Join us on October 2nd at 12:30pm on the Alumni Quad for a short christening ceremony featuring minimal pomp, just enough circumstance, obviously swag, and the traditional christening bottle-break across the bow.
But the celebrations and fun starts now! Our first ship, the RV GERTRUDE (Garment-engineered remote trawler for riverine urban debris evaluation), has a sister ship in need of a name — and we want you to help pick it. Whether you’ve got a ship name you’ve always wanted to use, a pun worthy of a dad joke hall of fame, or just a name that sounds delightfully important for a blue camo remote controlled boat barely larger than a duck, we want to hear it.
Submit your suggestions by Wednesday, September 30th, by scanning the QR code on the attached flyer to complete the Google Form. The department will select a finalist from all entries, and the winning name will be revealed live at the christening ceremony.
(Fair warning: we reserve editorial veto power, so if “Boaty McBoatface” energy takes over the submission box, we may have to make an executive call. We contain multitudes.)
For questions, comments, or suggestions, please reach out to Department of Biological Sciences.
