Bryan Plankenhorn<\/a> is a first-generation indigenous graduate student, from the Port Gamble S\u2019Klallam Tribe in Washington, pursuing a Ph.D. in oceanography. His research focuses on harmful algal blooms (HABs) which produce dangerous neurotoxins impacting sea life.<\/p>\n\u201cI have always resonated deeply with my tribal identity,\u201d says Plankenhorn. As an undergraduate, he worked with the Lummi Nation tribe in an environmental outreach program for younger students. At the same time, one of the worst harmful algal blooms (HABs) was occurring in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in devastating consequences to marine wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw firsthand how this event negatively impacted many coastal tribal communities as a result of their families unable to fish and collect shellfish because they contained potent neurotoxins from bioaccumulation of HAB species,\u201d says Plankenhorn. He decided to make HABs the focus of his study and hopes to help find ways to protect the environment and nearby communities, while also mentoring tribal students pursuing STEM degrees.<\/p>\n
Plankenhorn conducts weekly sampling and analysis of Narragansett Bay plankton, as part of GSO\u2019s long-term plankton time series, the longest time series of its kind in the world.<\/p>\n
He is treasurer for URI\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography Chowder & Marching graduate group and vice president for URI\u2019s Native American Student Organization. He\u2019s also led workshops at URI on Native American data sovereignty and advocacy for underrepresented communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bryan Plankenhorn, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in oceanography at GSO, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship through the NSF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":181391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[3018],"class_list":["post-181290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bryan-plankenhorn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181290"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181392,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181290\/revisions\/181392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}