Local industries and organizations can gain extra help on projects by hosting a URI student fellow, while students gain valuable skills and get to make an impact. There are a variety of ways that companies and organizations can partner with the University, to help welcome and work with top undergraduate and graduate students from URI, selected in a competitive process.

For URI water scientist Dr. Soni Pradhanang, the recent avalanche and flooding in Nepal is both a scientific event and a deeply personal one. Raised in Kathmandu, Pradhanang studies flooding, water resources and mountain hazards. Alongside Ph.D. student Pratik Singh Thakuri, also from Nepal, she is examining the Aug. 26 event using satellite imagery and hydrologic expertise.

Visitors also learn medicinal uses of therapeutic plants during immersive experience in the tranquil space.

Dr. Ying Zhang, professor of cell and molecular biology, recently received a $4 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to co-lead a collaboration with Louisiana State University to improve coastal wetland management in both states.

Dr. Garfield Kwan joins URI as an assistant professor of fish ecophysiology in the Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science. His research explores how fish respond to aquaculture, wildfire runoff, and future ocean conditions.

Dr. Carolina Michel is excited to explore how Indigenous knowledge and Western science can inform each other, how arts-integrated and place-based learning shape students’ sense of belonging in the geosciences, and what it means to build a department where interdisciplinary work is the starting point, not an afterthought.