Lacey Williams ’16 Co-Authors Article on Decline of South Africa’s White Sharks

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Lacey Williams ’16 has added some teeth to her CV.

The alumna recently co-published a paper, titled “Disappearance of white sharks leads to the novel emergence of an allopatric apex predator, the sevengill shark,” in Nature’s Scientific Reports.

Williams participated in the study, which documents the decline of white shark attacks on seals in False Bay, South Africa, under the leadership of team members Neil Hammerschlag from the University of Miami and Monique and Chris Fallows — operators of ecotourism company Apex Shark Expeditions. Williams’s fascination with shark behavior led her to work as a crew member at Apex for the last two years. (Read more in Colgate Magazine.)

At Colgate, Williams’s background as a biology major enabled her to explore her interest in marine life through programs like an extended study trip to the Florida Keys. This summer, Williams and her research team will travel to De Hoop, South Africa, to assess endemic shark species. She plans to begin graduate school in the fall of 2019.