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Henry Sun, a 2025 graduate of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Marine Science & Conservation, as well as a minor in Computer Science, recently shared insights into his Duke journey and postgraduate path. 

Sun is currently a Marine Science and Conservation Ph.D. student at the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Marine Lab (DUML) in the Wong Lab, led by Juliet Wong. 

What skills did you gain or experiences did you have at Duke that have been most beneficial in your graduate life? 

The biggest strength of the Nicholas School is how interdisciplinary it is. When I first met with Tom Schultz and Dave Johnston, they encouraged me to use my computer science skills, but I also spent hundreds of hours in the wet lab and in the field. No one ever told me to restrict my focus to one thing. It is good to try to have a breadth.

What is your Favorite part of being a phd student?

I get to think about organisms and science and questions  â€” which I did all the time before — but now the best part is the intellectual freedom that comes with being a graduate student. I’m in the driver's seat of my own research. 

When did you know what you wanted to do after graduation, and what helped you make that decision?

Well, I’m still figuring out what I want to do when I grow up! I was galvanized to apply to be a Rachel Carson Scholar after doing , where I used machine learning for the first time. While I wasn’t interested in recruiting for software engineering, using computer science to study marine organisms deeply fascinated me. I explored these interests in the Bonaventura Summer Research Fellows Program with Tom Schultz, which also helped. 

What was your favorite memory from your time as an undergraduate student at Duke?

So many! My first semester at DUML was the first time I got to know "Dr. Dan" [Rittschof]. He took us out into the field at night, which he's been doing for decades, for Juliet Wong's class. (Also, now she's my adviser which is pretty cool)

It was fantastical. He showed us how to catch flounder with just a hand and a net. We saw so many different animals. I was cold, covered in bug bites for three weeks, and I was sweaty. It was the most fun I've had in my entire life.