Cassy Thompson is currently a Master of Philosophy student at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies based at James Cook University. Cassy has a research background in coral reef ecology and for her masters research has studied fish biology, specifically of the family Chaetodontidae. Cassy studies part time and for the last few years has worked at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. She is currently employed as a benthic ecologist studying environmental effects on corals on inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef with the Marine Monitoring Program.