Fall 2016 Newsletter
Greetings from the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center!
In this issue, we’re thrilled to share news that the NOAA Office of Education has funded the NOAA LMRCSC for five additional years. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed to our application and our success over the last 15 years.
We’re also excited to share highlights from several of our summer programs and we hope you’ll take time to meet two newly minted Ph.D. graduates from one of our partners, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, David Marsan and Jan Vicente Raczkowski. Finally, catch some highlights from the Eighth Biennial NOAA EPP Forum and read more about the newly refunded NSF CREST Center for the Integrated Study of Coastal Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics at UMES.
Thank you,
Paulinus Chigbu, Ph.D.
Director, NOAA LMRCSC
NOAA LMRCSC earns $15.5 millon award
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Education has awarded nearly $3 million to the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) to continue its mission of training and graduating students, especially those from underrepresented groups, in the marine and environmental sciences. The grant will provide $15.5 million over its five-year span to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), the Center’s lead institution, and its partners.
NOAA’s Education Partnership Program with Minority-Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI) presented the award at its biennial NOAA EPP Forum, which was hosted by the NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies at the City College of New York in August.
“This grant will provide sought-after opportunities for students to gain the experience and education they need for a career in marine science,” said LMRCSC Director Paulinus Chigbu, Ph.D. “Our Center, with NOAA and additional funding earned by LMRCSC scientists, will continue to contribute data and information needed for the protection and management of our living marine resources and their habitats, as well as impact the diversity of the marine science workforce.”
Faculty and staff at UMES partner with six institutions across the country, funding students’ education, research and training at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels. The institutions include Delaware State University, Hampton University, Oregon State University, Savannah State University, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, and the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.
Since its inception in 2001, the NOAA LMRCSC has graduated more than 500 students in marine, estuarine and environmental sciences, with about seventy-four percent being from minority populations. LMRCSC researchers have contributed information needed for the protection and management of more than 20 species of finfish, shellfish and protected species and the protection and restoration of coastal and marine fish habitats. Half of LMRCSC alumni who earned bachelor’s degrees went on to graduate school, and nearly a quarter of master’s graduates went on to doctoral degrees.
Photo Caption: NOAA LMRCSC faculty, staff and students pose at the 2016 NOAA EPP Forum, where the recent award was announced.
David Marsan and Jan Vicente Raczkowski earn doctoral degrees from UMCES-IMET
This summer, David Marsan and Jan Vicente Raczkowski earned doctoral degrees from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (UMCES-IMET).
David Marsan defended his dissertation, titled, “Adaptive mechanisms of an estuarine Synechococcus based on genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics,” on July 20. Feng Chen, Ph.D., served as Marsan’s advisor, and his committee was comprised of Tsvetan Bachvaroff, Ph.D., Rosemary Jagus, Ph.D., Brian Palenik, Ph.D., James Sullivan, Ph.D., and Dean’s Representative, Daniel Terlizzi, Ph.D. Marsan began a position as a Preclinical R&D Scientist in Vaccines as part of the Future Leaders Program at GSK. Marsan was funded by the NOAA LMRCSC and the Ratcliffe Environmental Entrepreneur Fellowship.
Jan Vicente Raczkowski (pictured left) defended his dissertation, titled, “Sponge Mutualism in the Face of Climate Change,” on September 16. Vicente Raczkowski was advised by Russell Hill, Ph.D. His committee members included, UMCES faculty members Rosemary Jagus, Ph.D., Sook J. Chung, Ph.D., and Feng Chen, Ph.D.; Robert W. Thacker, Ph.D., professor at Stony Brook University; NOAA Fisheries biologist Jose A. Rivera; and Dean’s Representative Daniel Terlizzi, Ph.D. Vicente Raczkowski was funded by the NOAA LMRCSC and the Dr. Nancy Foster Scholars Program. In October, Vicente Raczkowski will begin a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
Learn more about Vicente Raczkowski’s research and his post-doctoral appointment.
Photo Attribution: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Cheryl Nemazie
Savannah State’s Lauren Ashley blogs about internship experience at Oregon State University
Sunny South meets windy west, a blog post by Lauren Ashley, senior at Savannah State University and summer intern in the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna (GEMM) Lab.
Rebecca Peters selected as 2017 Knauss Fellow
Rebecca Peters, a graduate student in the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Sciences (MEES) program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, has been selected for the 2017 class of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Peters’ education and research have been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CREST Center for the Integrated Study of Coastal Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics (CISCEP) at UMES. Peters will learn more about her placement within NOAA in November.
The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship provides a unique educational experience to graduate students that have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. The Fellowship, named after one of Sea Grant’s founders, former NOAA Administrator, John A. Knauss, matches highly qualified graduate students with “hosts” in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one-year paid fellowship.
REU Interns gain experience at UMES
This summer, twelve (12) students from across the country conducted research in the Coastal Ocean, Chesapeake and Maryland Coastal Bays (MCB) as part of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) in Marine and Estuarine Sciences internship program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The interns, hailing from institutions like Brown University, Northern Arizona University Yuma Branch Campus, Eckerd College, Hampton University, UMES, and University of Maryland Baltimore County, worked with faculty mentors and graduate students from the NOAA LMRCSC on research projects. Their work focused on topics like using morphological characteristics to distinguish between two crab species found in the coastal ocean of the mid-Atlantic; determining the concentrations of heavy metals in sediments and crabs found in the MCB, isolation, identification, and antimicrobial profile of Shewanella spp. in oysters and seawater from the Chesapeake Bay; and a comparison of the size structure of black sea bass at natural and artificial reefs.
The interns presented their research at the 2016 REU Symposium held at the Paul S. Sarbanes Coastal Ecology Center on August 11. The symposium included oral presentations from each of the interns and a poster session.
“Working with a faculty mentor in a lab has been extremely positive and has provided me with experience and information that will help guide my future career and schooling choices,” said Kyle Cornish, REU intern and rising senior studying environmental science and African-American studies at the University of Virginia who worked with Associate Professor Joseph Pitula. This summer, Cornish learned how to use end-point PCR, a tool for analyzing DNA, to assess the prevalence of the blue crab parasite Hematodinium in marine amphipods, which are crustaceans.
“I’ve learned so much about the research process and what it takes to create a research project, especially all the work that goes into the project before the field work portion,” said Anjali Boyd, a freshman at Eckerd College and REU intern working with NOAA LMRCSC Distinguished Research Scientist Bradley Stevens. Boyd presented her work at the NOAA EPP Forum in New York City held in August. Several other interns are currently applying to present their work at other conferences including the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Aquatic Sciences meeting in 2017 and the UMBC Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences
Paulinus Chigbu, director of the REU program, emphasized the importance of the REU interns mentoring other students in the future, gaining more research experience and presenting their findings at conferences.
“We like to have REU interns work with graduate students and faculty members, as well as with high school students from our Geosciences Bridge program to create a multi-level mentoring experience,” Chigbu said.
The 2016 REU program was coordinated by Margaret Sexton, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the NSF CREST Center for the Integrated Study of the Coastal Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics in the mid-Atlantic region.
Shadaesha Green presents doctoral research to USM Board of Regents
Shadaesha Green, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET), presented her research on the endocrinology of deep sea red crabs to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents at their June 10th meeting.
Russell Hill, Ph.D., IMET’s Director, invited Green to serve as a graduate student representative at the meeting, which included an opportunity to explain her research, academic path and experience as a graduate student.
Green joined the NOAA LMRCSC program at Hampton University, where she participated in various research projects, including a summer internship at UMCES-IMET. It was during her internship that she decided to pursue a Ph.D. in the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science program.
Green, under the advisement of J. Sook Chung, Ph.D., is investigating the reproductive biology of the red deep-sea crab, Chaceonquinquedens in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Research is lacking on this crab compared to warmer, shallow-water crabs like the blue crab (Callinectessapidus). Green’s research will provide data to improve and enhance the management of the red deep-sea crab.
Green received her B.S. degree in Marine and Environmental Science with a minor in Biology from Hampton University. She expects to complete her doctoral work and graduate in May 2019.
Photo Attribution: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Cheryl Nemazie
Geosciences Bridge Program trains rising freshmen
The Geosciences Bridge Program at UMES, a collaborative summer program of each of the NOAA Cooperative Science Centers, brought 13 rising freshmen to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore for a six-week internship. Interns explored geosciences through lectures and workshops, field trips, and conducted for-credit coursework.
“In this year’s Bridge Program we were able to pack in a great number and variety of hands-on STEM activities to refine participants’ understanding of geoscience topics and career options,” said Geosciences Program Coordinator Onjalé Scott. “We hope that this exposure to geosciences has enhanced students’ preparation for their undergraduate career and inspired them to pursue education in science.”
Student participants took a math course and the Freshmen Seminar course for college credit. They also went on field trips to the Backwater National Wildlife Reserve, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, the Chincoteague Bay Field Station, the Maryland Coastal Bays and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences.
The students experienced field methods such as seining and water quality testing at the Paul S. Sarbanes Coastal Ecology Center.
While on campus, they attended professional development sessions, 4-H activities, and lectures on geosciences, marine and environmental sciences.
To conclude the program, students worked in groups on a research project, which they presented to the faculty, friends and family.
LMRCSC students present at eight NOAA EPP Forum
Thirty-five (35) students from the NOAA LMRCSC presented at the biennial NOAA EPP Forum, which was hosted by the NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies at the City College of the City University of New York in August.
The Forum brought together students, faculty, and administrators from the four NOAA Cooperative Science Centers to share research results of projects conducted by NOAA EPP/MSI funded students and faculty, many in cooperation with NOAA scientists.
Jessica Andrade (Oregon State University) earned first place for her graduate oral presentation in the Healthy Oceans category. Keith Leonard (Delaware State University) earned second place for his graduate oral presentation in the same category.
Shanna Williamson, an alumna of the Woods Hole PEP Program and master’s student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, earned first place for her graduate oral presentation in the Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies category. Kristen Lycett, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, earned second place in the same category.
Hampton University’s Niya Wilkins earned first place at the undergraduate level for her poster in the Healthy Oceans category, with Vanessa Foster (Savannah State University) and Tyler Plum (University of Maryland Eastern Shore REU alumnus) tying for second place in the same category.
Emma Schultz, an alumna of Savannah State University, earned third place at the graduate level for her poster in the Healthy Oceans category.
Students attended networking activities and student development sessions focused on topics like mentorship, creating a professional portfolio, completing graduate school and fellowship applications and more. Attendees heard presentations from Sylvester James Gates Jr., Ph.D., of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; Vincent Boudreau, Ph.D., dean of the Collin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership; and Craig McLean, assistant administrator of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
NSF CREST-CISCEP program at UMES awarded five more years of funding
The NSF CREST Center for the Integrated Study of Coastal Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics (CISCEP) at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore successfully earned a second round of funding to continue its research and education mission for the next five years. The grant, which totals $1 million a year, funds critical research on the Maryland Coastal Bays (MCBs) and supports the education, research and training of undergraduate and graduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups, who are studying marine, estuarine and environmental sciences at UMES.
“This award enables us to continue the integrated ecosystem study we have initiated in our Coastal Bays, support undergraduate and graduate students and continue the educational programming we provide for local high school students and educators,” said Director of the NSF CREST-CISCEP Paulinus Chigbu.
The Center’s work has resulted in several significant scientific findings for the region, such as the discovery of a new species of amphipod, and has helped prepare the future workforce in the marine and estuarine sciences. CREST-CISCEP also conducts educational summer programs for local high school teachers and students to promote environmental literacy and understanding of Mid-Atlantic coastal ecosystems. The program creates educational opportunities and provides financial support for scientifically inclined students who are interested in coastal ecosystems.
During the next five years, CREST-CISCEP research will focus on the effects of climate variability on trophic (feeding) interactions and food web dynamics; the movement and exchange of materials and organisms between MCBs and the coastal ocean; and the dynamics of heterotrophic bacteria including Vibrio spp.
Since 2011, the CREST-CISCEP program has provided education and training in marine and environmental science to more than one thousand K-12 students, 28 high school interns, 22 middle and high school teachers, 41 undergraduate students, and 20 graduate students.
Learn more about the CREST-CISCEP Center at www.umes.edu/CREST/.
Tenth-annual SSU Coast Camp educates a hundred students
This summer’s Savannah State University (SSU) Coast Camp brought one hundred campers from Chatham County, Georgia for the camp’s tenth year as a NOAA LMRCSC sponsored program. Campers had the opportunity to “experience science” through hands-on learning activities, field trips, and expert guest speakers.
“Each year SSU Coast Camp curriculum strives to bridge connections between all content areas through inquiry and hands-on learning science education experiences,” said Victoria Young, Marine Science Outreach Coordinator at SSU.
Campers are split into groups by age, from 7-13 and from 14-18 years old.
This year, campers learned about local ecology through a visit from a shark biologist who taught campers about sharks as ocean predators. Campers also visited the beach near Tybee Island where they could learn about marine life and their coastal habitats.
The 14-18 year-old campers were exposed to field work in marine science by collecting sediment samples. They also received a tour of the library from Nikki Rech, Ash Gordon Library Outreach Liaison, to learn about resources and research.
The younger campers traveled to Okefenokee Swamp to learn about this area which is inhabited by the American alligator, pitcher plants and is the historical home of the Seminole Indians. They also met with SSU’s boat captain to learn about sea going vessels and safety.
The camp came to a close with presentations for campers’ parents at an end-of-camp celebration.
Visit the SSU Marine Science Outreach Channel on YouTube for a recap video from the camp: https://www.youtube.com/user/SSUCoastCamp
Photo attribution: Litus Marshall
Interns gain experience at UMCES-IMET summer program
The nine-week LMRCSC summer internship program at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology provided opportunities for students to conduct a research project with an LMRCSC faculty member, get experience working in a lab, participate in seminars on the use of molecular techniques in fisheries and environmental research, and a workshop on science communication at UMCES-IAN.
The program, which celebrated its fifteenth year this summer, is led by Rosemary Jagus, Ph.D., LMRCSC project director at IMET.
Check out the program’s blog to learn more.
Photo Attribution: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Cheryl Nemazie
Hampton University Marine Science Kayak Camps train youth in science
The LMRCSC sponsored two summer camps for students ranging in age from 912 and 15-18 at Hampton University (HU). Faculty and graduate students at HU partnered with Chesapeake Experience to host a Marine Science and a Kayak Camp.
Early in the week, students in the Marine Science Camp (15- to 18-year-old group) received an introduction to zooplankton, DNA extraction and collected samples on the RV Aquaria III. They took the species they collected back to the Marine and Environmental Science Lab for DNA extraction and electrophoresis. The group ended the week with a visit to the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge, kayaking and boat trips to Virginia’s Barrier Islands.
LMRCSC students Natalia Lopez and Alexandra Salcedo worked with thirty (30) of the students to facilitate the DNA analysis training of the campers.
View photos from the Marine Science Camp
Photo Attribution: Chesapeake Experience
LMRCSC in the News
Below is a sampling of NOAA LMRCSC students and faculty in recent news. A full list of news coverage is available upon request.
SSU professor assists in sea turtle hatching – Savannah News Now
Sept. 9, 2016 – LMRCSC researcher Chris Hintz from Savannah State University led a team of volunteers for the Tybee Sea Turtle Project.
Interns in STEM: So you want to be a graduate student.. Then what? – Maryland Women’s Journal
August 21, 2016 – Kathleen Gillespie, a doctoral alumna of the LMRCSC at UMCES-IMET, advises students on how to choose a career path in STEM.
Scientist studies black sea bass as New England Catch Climbs – Gloucester Times
Aug. 15, 2016 – LMRCSC Distinguished Research Scientist Brad Stevens earned a grant from the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership to study black sea bass.
AFS Tidewater Chapter presents scholarships and awards – Tidewater Press
August 4, 2016 – Ammar Hanif (UMCES-IMET) and Rebecca Peters (UMES) earn scholarships. AFS Student Subunit Update (Noelle Olson, UMES)
NOAA Scholarship Award – WDSU-TV, Delaware State University’s Inside Perspective
May 5, 2016 – Nivette Pérez-Pérez discusses earning the NOAA Graduate Research and Training Scholarship.
