Spring 2016 Newsletter
Greetings from the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center!
In this issue, we’re proud inform you of several awards and grants earned by our faculty, students and alumni. Of particular note, LMRCSC faculty member Dr. Russell Hill earned the University System of Maryland Board of Regents’ Award for Excellence in Mentoring. Our NOAA LMRCSC students have also been busy presenting their research at national meetings and collaborating across our partner institutions to deliver the NOAA LMRCSC Seminar Series. Finally, learn more about some of our ongoing research projects and a visit from top NOAA administrators to our lead institution, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Take a moment to stop by our new LMRCSC website, which debuted this month!
Thank you,
Paulinus Chigbu, Ph.D.
Director, NOAA LMRCSC
Hector Malagon, an alumnus of the NOAA LMRCSC at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) earned the Council of Historically Black Graduate Schools (CHBGS) ProQuest Thesis Award for 2016 for his thesis, “Population Dynamics of Young of the Year Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) in Maryland Coastal Bays. READ MORE.
Matthew Ramirez, a NOAA LMRCSC supported doctoral student in fisheries science at Oregon State University, recently published an article in Ecosphere, titled, “Patterns of loggerhead turtle ontogenetic shifts revealed through isotopic analysis of annual skeletal growth increments.” The article is co-authored by Larisa Avens, Jeffrey A. Seminoff, Lisa R. Goshe and Selina S. Heppell. READ MORE.
NOAA LMRCSC Distinguished Research Scientist Bradley Stevens, Ph.D., and three LMRCSC graduate students Wilmelie Cruz, Stephanie Martinez-Rivera and Laura Almodovar-Acevedo spent a week conducting preliminary research in Puerto Rico. READ MORE.
Students from across each of the partner institutions of the NOAA LMRCSC have collaborated to plan and present at the NOAA LRMCSC Seminar Series. So far, the series has featured the research of six students from various partner universities of the LMRCSC. READ MORE.
Stevens and Schweitzer receive $216K to study black sea bass habitats near Ocean City, Md.
Bradley Stevens, Ph.D., the distinguished research scientist for the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore received a $216,394 grant from the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP).
Stevens and his advisee, Cara Schweitzer, an LMRCSC-funded Ph.D. student in the Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Sciences Program, will use the funds to study black sea bass habitat characteristics, fish abundance, and fish diets near Ocean City, Maryland Their project is titled, “Hab in the MAB: Characterizing black sea bass habitat in the MidAtlantic Bight.”
Chigbu and Hill earn University System of Maryland Board of Regents’ Awards
Paulinus Chigbu, Ph.D., Director of the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) and professor at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and LMRCSC faculty member Russel T Hill, Ph.D., earned the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents’ Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring, the highest recognition the Board grants for exemplary faculty achievement.
Hill is director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) and professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science-IMET. The awards were presented on Friday, April 15 at the University of Maryland University College in College Park, Md. Each year, the Board presents up to 17 awards in five categories, including mentoring; public services; research, scholarship, or creative activity; teaching; and innovation.
The programs Chigbu has established and coordinated have positively impacted more than 500 students at various levels; from middle and high school through undergraduate to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. He has personally supervised more than 30 undergraduate and graduate students in their research.
“Dr. Chigbu is one of the most highly committed, hardworking and productive members of the SANS Team,” said dean of the School of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Moses Kairo, Ph.D. “Every day, his efforts touch the lives of students and faculty alike, and not jus here at UMES but across a range of many partner institutions.”
Dr. Hill, a leading researcher in marine and applied microbiology, studies the diversity an functions of microbes associated with marine invertebrates, such as sponges. A professor at UMCES since 2010, Dr. Hill has served since 2012 as director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET), a joint University System of Maryland facility in Baltimore that brings together scientists from UMCES, UMBC, and the University of Maryland Baltimore to engage in cutting-edge research in microbiology, molecular biology, and biotechnology.
“Russell Hill has a heartfelt and abiding passion for helping his mentees learn that extends, in many cases, throughout their careers,” said Dr. Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “While his mentoring contributions are long term and ongoing, Dr. Hill merits specific recognition for his innovative leadership in creating the Ratcliffe Environmental Entrepreneur Fellows program.
READ MORE ABOUT CHIGBU AND HILL
LMRCSC students and faculty participate in ASLO and Ocean Sciences meetings
LMRCSC students and faculty earned opportunities to present at recent Aquatic Sciences and Oceanic Sciences meetings in 2015 and 2016.
Four LMRCSC faculty and eleven students gave presentations at this year’s Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM), which is co-sponsored by Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), The Oceanography Society (TOS), and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The meeting will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA from February 21-26, 2016.
The meeting brings participants among diverse groups together for scientific exchange on various marine science topics.
Top NOAA Administrators Visit LMRCSC at UMES
On November 23, 2015, the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) welcomed Vice Admiral Manson Brown, assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction; Craig McLean, assistant administrator, NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); and Dr. Marlene Kaplan, deputy director, NOAA Office of Education, to the center’s lead institution, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), for a daylong visit with campus administrators, faculty, and students.
