GSO Alum Fund: Student awardees

December 17, 2021

GSO Alum Fund Student Awards are given out twice a year to GSO students for research supplies, educational experiences, and conference travel. Funds are available through the generosity of GSO alums and others who contribute to the RhodyNow fund for GSO. The students submit online applications via the GSO webpage that are reviewed by a panel of GSO alums from various years.

2023-2024

Eight student awards were announced from the GSO Alum Fund for spring and summer projects and travel. A portion of these awards came from funds donated in honor of GSO Professor Emeritus Michael E.Q. Pilson. Congratulations to:

  • Thomas Caero, M.S. student of Hongjie Wang, received $415 for travel to the Alaska MarineScience Symposium, January 29–February 2, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska, to present “Ocean acidification in the Pacific-Arctic Region: Bridging carbonate system observational” and to participate in the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network’s annual meeting.
  • Zhangbao Cheng, Ph.D. student of Yang Shen, received $415 for travel to the CTEMPs Hands-on Workshop on Fiber-Optic Distributed Acoustic and Temperature Sensing for Interdisciplinary Earth Scientists, August 13-17, 2024, at Sagehen Creek Field Station in California.

  • Erica (Rickie) Ewton, Ph.D. student of Susanne Menden-Deuer, received $415 for the project entitled “Indicators of Mixotrophy on Two Productive Coastal Ecosystems” which involves travel to the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute to learn new techniques for processing bacteria samples in the lab of Dr. Cohen.

  • Diana Fontaine, Ph.D. student of Tatiana Rynearson, received $415 for travel to the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting in New Orleans, LA from 2/18/24-2/23/24 to present “When size matters: time series of size-fractionated primary production on the Northeast U.S. Shelf.”

  • Meng Gao, Ph.D. student of Keisuke Inomura, received $415 for travel to the ASLO Meeting 2024, 2-7 June in Madison, Wisconsin to present work on chemotrophic N2 fixation, which is part of a collaboration with a group of researchers focusing on aquatic N2 fixation. 

  • Joshua Pi, Ph.D. student of Kelton McMahon, received $415 for travel to IsoEcol 2024, the 13th International Conference on the Application of Stable Isotope Techniques in Ecological Studies, Fredericton, Canada on July 29 – August 2, 2024 to present “Nominally herbivorous fishes targeted in a subsistence coral reef fishery occupy the same isotope niche

  • Coralie Rodriguez, Ph.D. student of Katherine Kelley, received $415 for the project entitled “Triple Oxygen Isotopes in Ferromanganese Crusts.” The Fe-Mn crust samples were collected in January 2024 and will be analyzed in the lab of Dr. Jordan Wostbrock of Yale University.

  • Corinne Truesdale, Ph.D. student of Jeremy Collie., received $415 for travel to the annual American Fisheries Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, from September 15th to 19th, 2024 to present “Comparing data streams and assessment methods for a data-poor fishery using simulations.”

In December 2023, nine awards were announced for the GSO alum fund. Congrats to:

  • Lindsay Agvent, M.S. student of Kelton McMahon — $900 for travel to present “Testing the Ontogenetic Migration Hypothesis in the Emerging Rhode Island Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) Fishery Using Stable Isotope Analysis” at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, 18-23 February 2024
  • Gabrielle Armin, Ph.D. student of Kei Inomura — $900 for travel to present “Quantifying Temperature Dependencies of Elemental Stoichiometry and Macromolecular Allocation in the Marine Phytoplankton” at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, 18-23 February 2024, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Nicole Flecchia, M.S. student of Chris Kincaid and Candace Oviatt — $900 for travel to present “The Effects of River Transport Rate on the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis Leidyi in Greenwich Bay” at the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation, 12-16 November 2023
  • Victoria Fulfer, Ph.D. student of J.P. Walsh — $900 for travel to the 2023 International Microplastics Workshop for Early Career Researchers in Ascona, Switzerland to present research projects (one poster, one oral presentation) on macro, meso and microplastic distributions and dynamics around Narragansett Bay and worldwide
  • Michelle Hauer, Ph.D. student of Roxanne Beinart — $900 for travel to present “Bacteriophage Role in Microbial Symbiont Population Structure at Deep-sea Hydrothermal Vents of the Lau Basin” at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, 18-23 February 2024
  • Nicole Mucci, M.S. student of Rebecca Robinson — $900 for travel to present “Nitrogen Cycling and Nutrient Efflux from Coastal Sediments Is Variable Under Hypoxia” at American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting (AGU 2023), 11-15 December 2023
  • Angelos Papandreou, Ph.D. student of Tetsu Hara and Isaac Ginis — $680 for travel to present “Evaluating Impacts of Full Wave-Current Interaction” at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, 18-23 February 2024
  • Joshua Pi, Ph.D. student of Kelton McMahon — $900 for travel to present “Reflections, Perceptions, and Practices of Spearfishing Among Ulithian Communities in Ulithi, Federated States of Micronesia and Hawaiʻi, USA” at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, 18-23 February 2024
  • Jarod Snook, Ph.D. student of Rainer Lohmann — $1,275 for research supplies for the project “Characterizing PFAS Contamination in the Gulf of Panama”

2022-2023

In May 2023, eight awards were announced for the GSO Alum Fund. Congratulations to:

  • Ian Bishop, student of Tatiana Rynearson, $1,500, for travel to present at the conference “Molecular Life of Diatoms” July 16-21 in San Diego, Calif.
  • Erica (Rickie) Ewton, student of Susanne Menden-Deuer, $2,000, for research supplies to conduct her own experiments during the research cruise “Phytoplankton response to the Upwelling CYCLE (PUPCYCLE)” in June 2023
  • Diana Fontaine, student of Tatiana Rynearson, $1,000, for part of the Open Access Publication Fee to Limnology and Oceanography for her manuscript entitled “Multi-year time series reveals temporally synchronous diatom communities with annual frequency of recurrence in a temperate estuary.”
  • Rebecca Lippitt, student of Katherine Kelley, $1,000, for travel to present a poster entitled “Linking Sulfur Degassing and Magmatic Redox at Socorro and San Benedicto Islands, Mexico” at the Gordon Research Conference “Interior of the Earth,”  June 18-23 2023 at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.
  • Sarah Nickford, student of Jaime Palter, $1,801, for travel to attend and present a poster and give an oral presentation at “Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere (SOLAS) Summer School 2023” June 5-16, 2023, on Cape Verde, an island chain off the north-western coast of Africa. 
  • Anna Schrecengost, student of Roxanne Beinart, $1,050 for travel related to a research cruise July 14 – July 24 2023, out of Newport, Oregon to the Axial Seamount. Her research project is entitled “Characterizing and quantifying the impact of phagotrophic protists at hot spots of primary production at Axial Seamount.”
  • Samantha (Sam) Setta, student of Tatiana Rynearson, $1,500, for conference travel to present her research on “Diatom Diazotroph Associations” at the Molecular Life of Diatoms conference July17-21, 2023 in San Diego, Calif.
  • Xiaozhuo Wei, student of Yang Shen, $1,050 for flight to Puerto Rico and hotel for travel to attend the “Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting 2023” April 17- 20, 2023.

In October 2022, eight awards were announced for the GSO Alum Fund. Congratulations to:

  • Matthew Dunn, student of Rainer Lohmann, $287.00 for travel to the New England Estuarine Research Society (NEERS) meeting in Providence, RI to present a unique study of organic contaminant dynamics in an estuary in southern RI. Fall 2022 award.
  • Erin Jones, student of Tatiana Rynearson, $1,000.00 for travel to the ASLO 2023 Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Palma de Mallorca, Spain to share her dissertation research particularly with her NASA Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) colleagues. Fall 2022 award.
  • Annabelle Leahy, student of Jeremy Collie, $1,500 toward her travel to the International Network for Offshore Renewable Energy European Symposium in Zarautz, Spain from October 11-17, 2022, to present a poster “Investigation of suitable habitat of the American Lobster and effect of environmental monitoring survey design on baseline abundance estimates”. Fall 2022 award.
  • Sarah Nickford, student of Jaime Palter, $248.97 towards travel to attend the Graduate Climate Conference in Washington from October 28-30, 2022, to give a talk on “Examining the air-sea CO2 exchange in the Gulf Stream Region using autonomous observations”. Fall 2022 award.
  • Katherine (Katie) Roche, student of Bethany Jenkins, $1,000.00 towards travel to attend the 2023 Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Palma de Mallorca, Spain to present “Diatom taxonomic and functional diversity within environmental gradients in the upper ocean”. Fall 2022 award.
  • Riley Secor, student of Candace Oviatt, $1,076.40 for CHN and amino acid sample analysis for her research on “Bioenergetic Consequences of Epizootic Shell Disease (ESD) in the American Lobster”. Fall 2022 award.
  • Sandra Slead, student of Meng (Matt) Wei, $1,350.00 for travel to present a poster at the 2022 AGU Fall Meeting in Chicago, IL from December 12-16, 2022.  The poster is part of her dissertation research at GSO and is a collaboration with several researchers from other institutions who will be at the meeting. Fall 2022 award.
  • PeiChin Wu, student of Meng (Matt) Wei, $1000.00, towards travel and registration for the 2022 AGU Fall Meeting in Chicago, IL from December 12-16, 2022, to present on “Coastal Urban Subsidence Caused by Groundwater Extraction.” Fall 2022 award.

2021-2022

The awards were announced in December 2021 and April 2022, with a total of 11 GSO graduate students receiving funding. Congratulations to:

  • Isabel Dove, student of R. Robinson, $1,000, for to travel to Bergen, Norway for the 14th International Conference on Paleoceanography to present her research, “The nitrogen isotopic composition of diatom resting spores.”
  • Victoria Fulfer, student of J.P. Walsh, $355, for registration to attend virtually and serve as a co-chair for a session at the 2022 Ocean Sciences meeting “Coastal connections: Material transport between Land, Estuaries and the Shelf” and to present her research “Shore to Seafloor: Plastic Distributions and Transport through the Providence River and Narragansett Bay, R.I.”
  • Asta Habtemichael, student of R. Lohmann, $1,500, for research supplies for “Calibrating novel graphene hydrogel passive sampler to quantify bioaccumulation of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in phytoplankton.”
  • Asta Habtemichael, student of R. Lohmann, $900.00 for travel to the Gordon Research Conference on “Environmental Sciences: Water” in Holderness, NH to attend and present a poster entitled “Comparison of Nano-graphene and Polyethylene Sheet as Passive Samplers for Detecting Organophosphate Esters (OPEs) and Implication on Field Deployment.”
  • Bing He, student of Matt Wei, $355, for registration to attend virtually the 2022 Ocean Sciences meeting and present on “Seafloor Geodesy – Seafloor pressure measurements in New Zealand.”
  • Anna Schrecengost, student of Roxanne Beinart, $1000.00 for travel to the conference “Beneficial Microbes 2022” in Madison, WI to present her project entitled “Diversity of marine anaerobic ciliates and their associations with methanogenic symbionts.”
  • Samantha Setta, student of Tatiana Rynearson, $1,715,29 for research supplies to complete her sample analysis of nutrients, isotopes, and dissolved gases for her project “Nutrient Acquisition in a Diatom Diazotroph Association.”
  • Somang Song, student of C. Mouw, $355, for registration to attend virtually the 2022 Ocean Sciences meeting and present on “Environmental Drivers of Phytoplankton Community Composition in the North Atlantic Assessed with Satellite Imaging.”
  • Corrine Truesdale, student of J. Collie, $960.00, for research supplies for “Research in support of sustainable management of an emerging fishery: laboratory-based growth analysis of Jonah crab.”
  • Luis Velazquez, student of L. Van Uffelen, $355, for registration to attend virtually the 2022 Ocean Sciences meeting and present on “Acoustic localization of autonomous underwater vehicles using measurements collected in the Beaufort Sea.”
  • PeiChin Wu, student of Matt Wei, $270, for travel to AGU Fall 2021 Meeting in New Orleans and to present on “Using InSAR to detect coastal urban subsidence around the world.”