Veronica M. Berounsky (Ph.D 1990), left, and Annette DeSilva—both staff members at GSO— received the 2021 Environmental Merit Award—Lifetime Achievement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 1, New England). The two were honored for their 30 years of outstanding and sustained stewardship of the Narrow River in R.I.
Ph.D. student Victoria Fulfer was selected as a 2021 Voices for Science Policy Fellow by the American Geophysical Union. Fulfer also received a R.I. Space Grant Graduate Fellowship to support her research—“Plastic Pollution in the Southern New England Coastal Waters.”
Emeritus Professor John King was honored by the URI Foundation and Alumni Engagement with the 2020 Scholarly Excellence Award for his continued dedication to research within his field of sediment-based studies of environmental change and ocean mapping.
Professor Rainer Lohmann was named a Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar for 2021-2022. Lohmann will work on measuring exposure to pollutants on the Faroe Islands.
Ph.D. student Basia Marcks won the Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year. Her project is titled “Did Iron Fertilization Increase Biogenic Sediment Accumulation in the Subantarctic Across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition?” The Schlanger program offers merit-based awards for research related to the International Ocean Discovery Program.
Jen McCann of the Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant was selected as an Offshore Wind Energy Liaison for the National Sea Grant College Program. In the role, she will advocate for Sea Grant’s network capacity to promote the nation’s rapidly evolving offshore wind energy development.
Professor Susanne Menden-Deuer was named a sustaining fellow by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. She was recognized for sustained excellence in contributions to ASLO and the aquatic sciences.
Assistant Professor Brennan Phillips (Ph.D. 2016), who holds a joint appointment to URI’s Department of Ocean Engineering and GSO, received the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research. Phillips’ topic is “Ultralight, Economical, and Adaptable Solutions for Deep-Sea UUVs and Distributed Sensing Using Fiber-Optic Tethers Program.”
Anna Robuck (Ph.D. 2020) was recognized by the URI Graduate School for excellence in dissertation research, based on letters of nomination for doctoral students who graduated in the previous year from the university.
Pamela Rubinoff of the Coastal Resource Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant was named a finalist for the 2020 New England Regional Adaptation Leadership Award by the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. Rubinoff was recognized for her work to foster cross-sector collaboration to ensure climate adaptation science and planning are accessible to all.