Michael Roy is interested in research related to non-native invertebrates of estuarine and brackish water ecosystems and how their introduction affects the ecology, biodiversity, environment, economics, and politics of coastal areas. Roy received his Bachelors in Biology from the University of Rhode Island, with a minor in Political Science in 2012. Additionally, Michael attended the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and the Mystic Seaport in 2011, an undergraduate off campus study program that integrates maritime fields of literature, politics, marine management, ecology, oceanography, conservation, history, and culture. Here he began research on the impacts that non-native Asian shrimp Palaemon macrodactylus has on native shrimp species of Mystic, Connecticut. For his Master’s thesis at Long Island University – Post, Roy continued this research to determine the abundance, distribution, size and sex ratios, and rates of parasitism of both native and non-native shrimp species along Long Island and New York City. As a PhD student under Dr. Jarrett Byrnes, Roy hopes to explore the factors that make a species successful in a non-native habitat, impacts on coastal ecosystems, and prevention and management of invasive species through governmental policy.