The lifecycle of many marine organisms includes a free-swimming larval stage that searches for a place to attach, where it metamorphoses into an adult. This search and decision-making process (larval settlement) is poorly understood yet essential: it is expected to play critical roles in determining species density and to be point of vulnerability. Understanding larval settlement therefore has important societal implications for both promoting the growth of desired species and protecting regions from invasive species and biofouling. Despite the importance of this process, remarkably little is known of the underlying neural mechanisms. Using larvae from the jellyfish Clytia as a model, this work will perform a systematic study of the neural control of settlement. This deeper understanding could be foundational for developing new solutions for prediction and manipulation of the density of critical marine organisms for the betterment of human society and ocean health. In addition to these scientific impacts, integral to this proposed work is training the next generation of scientists. Clytia make an exceptional research organism for undergraduate research: it is easy and low-cost for students to gain hands-on research experience using Clytia, and this work will expose numerous undergraduates to research experience. Lastly, a goal of this work is for Clytia to become a widely used model organism for neuroscience research. This work will be foundational for bolstering a Clytia com