Michael A. Rice, professor and chair of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences, returned to the Philippines this summer to work with key academic partners and provide professional development training to local fisheries officers.

Professor Patrick Baur’s research focuses on equitably and sustainably balancing human livelihoods and ecosystems through improving how food is produced, distributed, and eaten. He works at the intersection of environmental science and public policy and co-authored a recent paper in the journal Nature Food.

Sheriff Aliu, a Ph.D. candidate in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems working in URI’s Baur Food Systems Lab, researches sustainability and equity assessment for commercial Controlled Environment Agriculture operations.

As part of a CELS Summer Research Fellowship, marine affairs and political science double major Carli Romano is working with Professors Melva Treviño Peña and Jesse Reiblich on coastal access policy research in Rhode Island.

Nick O’Connor, a marine biology and aquaculture and fisheries science double major, is participating in the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates program this summer at Rutgers University’s Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory. He is conducting research using camera-mounted fish traps to study fish distributions around artificial reefs off the Jersey shore.

While leopard seals might be easily recognized for their ominous portrayals as villains in movies, they largely remain a mystery to humans. Professor Sarah Kienle and postdoctoral researcher Emily Sperou are working to fix that by contributing to our scientific understanding of these marine apex predators.

At URI, GIS is used to manage the impressive botanical collections on the Kingston Campus. What started as a need for better organization of the accessions database – a spreadsheet that tracked the inventory of plants housed on campus – grew into an interactive tool used by both staff and visitors alike: URI Botanical Collections Database. The leading developer for the database was GIS and spatial services specialist Meagan Shanaghan ‘20 M.E.S.M. ‘23.

Compared to other New England states, there is less turtle density in Rhode Island due to the state’s urbanization. However, careful driving, and media use, are still recommended to help protect turtles and other vulnerable reptile and amphibian species.

Two Ph.D. students in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences’ interdisciplinary biological and environmental sciences graduate program have been awarded graduate research fellowships from the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium. Michelle Marder and Kate Remy ’24 are specializing in cell and molecular biology and aim to help scientists better understand antibiotic resistance.