For the most recent news see the Marine Biology home page

2019-2020

• Graduate School Acceptances – Allison Gallagher (MBio, Class of 2021) is doing graduate work in Marine Ecology at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. Michael Burgess (MBio, Class of 2019) will be doing his MS at UCONN in the EEB program, working with Dr. Eric Schultz on migration of juvenile river herring. Danielle Jordan (MBio, Class of 2018) will be doing a PhD at Univ. Aberdeen (Scotland) studying calcium transport mechanisms in invertebrates using CRISPR (with Dr. Victoria Sleight). Fiona Mackechnie (MBio, Class of 2015) will be doing her PhD at University of Auckland. For more information about our alumni, see our Alumni Page.
• Dr. Carlos Prada has received a major NSF Grant, “Surviving Climate Change: The role of Adaptation and Acclimatization in Tropical Corals”.  The project will determine if back reefs harbor heat tolerant corals as a result of recurrent high temperatures and processes such as acclimation and natural selection.
• Alyssa Lopez (MBio, Class of 2020) received the 2020 Academic Excellence Award in Marine Biology at Graduation; she is currently a fisheries observer in Alaska and is applying to graduate school.
• 2020 Research and Scholarship Awards received by Marine Biology faculty  
  • Dr. Chris Lane – University of Rhode Island Advanced Career Faculty Research and Scholarship Excellence Awards in the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.
  • Dr. Hollie Putnam – University of Rhode Island Early Career Faculty Research and Scholarship Excellence Award in the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.
  • Dr. Jacqueline Webb – 2020 Research Excellence Award, College of the Environment and Life Sciences.
• Dr. Andrew Davies has received several new grants: A Norwegian Research Council grant (with 22 EU partners; to study deep-sea Sponges in the North Atlantic – an integrated approach towards their preservation and sustainable exploitation), two grants from the Rhode Island Research Alliance – Science and Technology Advisory Council (to study spatial and temporal distribution of microplastics within Narragansett Bay, and enhancing ecosystem models for planktivorous fishes )and a grant Rhode Island Sea Grant (Are microplastics a vector for organic pollutants and disease in marine food webs?) with Drs. Coleen Suckling, Marta Gomez-Chiarri, Kelton McMahon and other URI collaborators.
• Dr. Jacqueline Webb received a 2020 Franklin Grant from the American Philosophical Society for her work on digital visualization, quantification and modeling of fish sensory systems
• Aubree Jones (PhD student in the Webb Lab) received a 2020 Edward C. Raney Fund Award from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists for her dissertation research (“Best of Both Worlds: Connecting Form and Function of Two Lateral Line Phenotypes within One Species, Ericymba buccata”)
• Myles Wagner (MBio class of 2022) was awarded a prestigious, nationally competitive NOAA Hollings Scholarship (2020). Myles is the 29th URI student (and the 22nd Marine Biology major) to have been awarded this scholarship since the program’s inception in 2005.
• Katharine Egan (MBio class of 2015, who has been working for NOAA) and Sean McNally (MBio class of 2013; currently a PhD student at UMass Boston) have been awarded Sea Grant Knauss Fellowships (Classes of 2019 and 2020, respectively). They will each spend a year in Washington, D.C. working on critical marine policy and resource management issues.
• URI will lead the new $94 million NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute to support ocean exploration, responsible resource management, improved scientific understanding of the deep sea and to strengthen the nation’s Blue Economy. “…The Blue Economy [is] expected to more than double its contribution to the U.S. economy and employ 40 million people by 2030….NOAA’s new cooperative institute will be on the front lines helping NOAA explore and characterize the 3 billion acres of U.S. ocean territory…..“
• Callie Veelenturf (MBio Class of 2014) spoke at the UN (!) representing youth for World Wildlife Day.  She has also become a National Geographic Explorer. She will be in the Pearl Islands, Panama studying human use, fisheries interactions and nesting of sea turtles this coming year.
• Samantha Ward (MBio, Class of 2019) is the winner of the Academic Excellence Award in Marine Biology, which will be presented on Graduation Weekend.
• Graduate School News!  Nick Celico will be doing a Master of Oceanography degree at GSO. Aditi Tripathyis going to UNH to do a MS in marine bioacoustics. Dawn Parry is going to Cornell for a PhD in marine mammal bioacoustics with a five-year fellowship. Kiran Reed is going to Cal State Northridge to do an MS in marine ecology.
• Aubree Jones (PhD student in the Webb Lab; BS Texas A&M Galveston) has received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
• Four Marine Biology majors have been invited to join Phi Beta Kappa.
• Elizabeth Saraf (MBio Class of 2021) was awarded a 2019 NOAA Hollings Scholarship. She is the 28th URI student to have been awarded this nationally competitive scholarship.
• Dawn Parry received Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She also received Honorable Mention in the student poster competition at the 16th International Conference of the American Cetacean Society for her poster “Tracking Sei Whales in the Western North Atlantic Using Passive Acoustics”. Dawn did this work at NOAA – Fisheries in Woods Hole as a Hollings Scholarship Intern in Summer 2018. She will be presenting this work at ASLO in February as well.

2018

•  “What I did over my “Summer Vacation””  – Eleven junior and senior MBio majors presented lightening talks about their 2018 summer internships from Rhode Island to Hawaii!  (see photo to right)
• Dr. Hollie Putnam (BioSci) is the lead on a $1.1 million grant funded by the NSF and the Israeli Binational Science Foundation to investigate how coral and other organisms dependent on coral reefs adapt and acclimate to environmental stress caused in large part by climate change.
• Welcome to new faculty members, Dr. Andrew Davies (BioSci) and Dr. Coleen Suckling (FAVS), who arrived in Fall 2018 from the UK.
• Congratulations to all at URI who participated at the Volvo Ocean Race Event!  The Volvo Ocean Race Newport Stopover Team will receive an Environmental Merit Award from EPA in recognition of its exceptional work and commitment to the environment. This award recognizes outstanding environmental advocates who have made significant contributions toward preserving and protecting our natural resources.  Volvo Ocean Race Newport Stopover Team demonstrated a top-notch sustainability plan for promoting conservation and stewardship of natural resources, reducing pollution and carbon footprint, educating the public (One Ocean Exploration Zone), conducting research, and walking the walk when it comes to promoting sustainable practices. 
• URI Students and Faculty participated in the Mystic
  Aquarium’s “Women in STEM Day” for the second time. Dr. Hollie Putnam, graduate students from the Putnam, Webb, Gomez-Chiarri and Lane Labs, and undergraduates (photo to right) shared their expertise on careers, sensory biology, and oyster, algae and coral biology and ecology with hundreds (if not thousands) of Aquarium visitors.
• Tiare Fridrich (MBio Class of 2018) reports “Last year I went to Beneath the Sea and met the President of ReefSave, Sal Delello, who was looking for scientific divers to help with Lionfish purse trap testing in the Caribbean. I flew in to Bequia, Saint Vincent about five days ago and have been leading dives where we conducted fish abundance surveys on two sites where we will be dropping traps. It’s been really awesome to be able to utilize what I learned in Bermuda here for ReefSave.
• Jillian Freese (PhD student in Chris Lane’s lab), has written a children’s book about algae, called “A is for Algae“. A new way to learn your ABC’s! It started out as a birthday present for her young cousin, but she was urged to publish it.
• Alison Frey (MBio Class of 2018) received a Grace Klein-MacPhee Travel Award (the only undergraduate to do so) to attend the 42nd Larval Fish Conference in Victoria BC, where she then received an Honorable Mention for the JHS Blaxter Award (best student poster presentation). Ali worked with Dr. Jeremy Collie (GSO) on distributions of larval flounders in Narragansett Bay. She will be starting a MS at UMass Dartmouth in 2019. Photo: Dr. Lee Fuiman (Chr., Award Committee) and Ali.
• Alexa Sterling (PhD student, Jenkins Lab) won the Department of Biological Sciences Graduate Teaching Excellence Award for her work in BIO 360 Marine Biology.
• Johann Becker (MBio/OCE Class of 2018) is the winner of the 2018 Academic Excellence award in Marine Biology (and in Ocean Engineering!)
• Callie Veelenturf (MBio Class of 2014) was selected as the
  overall winner of a Scientist at Work photo contest held by
  Nature.
• Two Marine Biology majors, Max Zavell and Erin Tully (MBio Class of 2020; photo to right) have been awarded NOAA Hollings Scholarships  this year. This is the 10th consecutive year in which URI students have won this prestigious and nationally competitive scholarship. A total of 27 URI students have received this scholarship since its inaugural year in 2005.
• A recent paper by Dr. Jacqueline Webb (BIO) and Dr. Jason Ramsay (former graduate student and lecturer) has been named Best Paper in Ichthyology for 2017 by Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (Webb JF & Ramsay J. 2017. New interpretation of the 3-D configuration of lateral line scales and the lateral line canal contained within them. Copeia. 105: 339-347. DOI: 10.1643/CG-17-601; open access)
• Dr. Jacqueline Webb has been promoted to Full Professor III and Dr. Chris Lane has been Promoted to Full Professor.
• Alexa Sterling (PhD student, Jenkins Lab) has been awarded a 2018-2019 Rhode Island Space Grant Fellowship to support her research.
• A very successful Society of Women in Marine Science (SWMS) Spring Symposium (“Navigating a Sea of Choices in Marine Science“) was held at GSO on Saturday March 24. Graduate students Alexa Sterling (BES, Jenkins Lab), Jillian Freese (BES, Lane Lab) and Anna Robuck (GSO, Lohmann Lab)  – photo at right – and a flock (a school, a pod) of CELS/marine biology undergrads did a spectacular job of organizing a remarkable conference that attracted over 125 attendees from around the country.
• Dr. Carlos Prada (BioSci) arrived in Jan. 2018 as the newest member of the Marine Biology faculty.
• Dr. Jon Puritz (BioSci) has been invited to be faculty for the 4th annual “Bioinformatics for Adaptation Genomics (B@G^4)” workshop for early career researchers in Weggis, Switzerland. He has been an invited faculty member for all four workshops.
• Dr. Hollie Putnam (BioSci) and colleagues at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) have received a major grant from Pembroke Foundation International that will determine how rapidly corals can acclimate and adapt to warming temperatures and what the reefs of the future will look like.
• Callie Veelenturf (MBio 2014 and MS, Purdue U.) won the first Cocos Island Conservation Scholarship through the Turtle Island Restoration Network. Its purpose is to provide an early-career marine conservationist the chance to participate in a Cocos Island Expedition. Callie went on a 10-day sea turtle and shark tagging expedition to Cocos Island (off the coast of Costa Rica).

2017

• URI in Bermuda – This fall, 15 junior and senior Marine Biology majors are studying tropical marine biology at BIOS (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences).
• Student research on the effects of climate change on larval invertebrate development in the Irvine Lab.  
• Three Alums in US NOAA Corps: (from left to right) ENS Katie Carria (Aquaculture and Fisheries 2014), LTJG Bryan Pestone (Marine Biology 2012) and LTJG Cherisa Friedlander (Marine Biology 2008). Cherisa writes that she is working at the NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory (Boulder CO) and will be on a 13 month (!) deployment to Antarctica starting in November 2017.
• Ashley Stoehr (MBio 2010) is currently PhD student at UMass-Dartmouth. She was sighted at Shoals Marine Laboratory (shoalsmarinelaboratory.org) where she was a teaching assistant (photo at right).
• Dr. Brad Wetherbee’s shark research with students covered in the Providence Journal.
• Sean Duffy (MBio, Class of 2016), who received his Master of Oceanography from GSO in May 2017, has been awarded a prestigious, nationally competitive NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship. Sean was one of only five students selected nationally for the fellowship.
• URI was well-represented at the 2017 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Austin, Texas (Left to right: Lauren Carter [BS MBio 2014, MS 2015, now working for NOAA], Ashley Marranzino [MS 2016], Katie Nickles  [BS MBio 2016, current MS student], Kelsey James [current PhD student], Sara Shapiro [MBio class of 2019]. Not pictured: Charles Bangley (BS MBio 2007, now grad student at East Carolina University), Teresa Schwemmer (BS MBio 2015, now grad student at Stony Brook University). Students from the Kolbe and Karraker labs, as well as Dr. Nancy Karraker, also presented papers at the meeting.
• John (Jack) Girard (MBio Class of 2017) was awarded the 2017 Academic Excellence Award in Marine Biology at Graduation.
• Dawn Parry, Sara Shapiro, and Samantha Ward, all sophomore Marine Biology majors, have been awarded 2017 NOAA Hollings Scholarships!  The Hollings Scholarship seeks to support students whose goals align with NOAA’s mission of Science, Service and Stewardship.  A total of 23 URI students have been awarded these prestigious, nationally competitive scholarships, with 1-6 scholarships being awarded to URI students each year since 2009.
• PhD students Alexa Sterling and Jillian Freese (Jenkins [CMB] and Lane [BIO] Labs, respectively) have started the URI chapter of the Society for Women in Marine Science. It’s already been a great success with undergraduate, graduate student, and faculty participation in a variety of professional development and outreach activities.  The goal of SWMS (from their website) is to “create a community of marine researchers who acknowledge and address the difficulties facing women and minorities in the marine field.” EVERYONE is invited to participate.
• Dr. Austin Humphries (FAVS) has received a $3 million grant from USAID to study coral reef fisheries in Indonesia. The research will identify fishery management strategies that will maintain and protect the ecosystem while also ensuring that fish are available for consumption. Dr. Chris Lane (BIO) will be doing genetics work as part of this project.
• Danielle Perry (PhD student in the Thorber Lab, NRS) and Felicia Woods (PhD student in the Karraker lab, NRS) have been awarded prestigious, nationally competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Danielle studies conservation of our local salt marshes and Felicia studies sea turtle ecology in New England in light of changing ocean temperatures.
• Three research grants were awarded to three CELS graduate students by The Nature Conservancy and URI’s Coastal Institute. These grants support research that advances the conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems have been awarded to two graduate students. Paul Carvalho (PhD student in the Humphries Lab, and NSF Graduate Research Fellow) will be examining how the use of different types of fishing gear might aid in coral reef conservation. Rebecca Stevick (PhD student in the Gomez-Chiarri Lab, FAVS) is studying the effects of estuarine acidification on efforts to restore oyster habitat. Amber Hardy (Stolt Lab, NRS) will be studying the effect of sea level rise on tidal marshes.
• Benjamin Negrete (MBio, Class of 2012) has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and will start his PhD in fish physiological ecology at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Fall 2017.
• Welcome to New Marine Biology Faculty:
  • Dr. Hollie Putnam  joined the Department of Biological Sciences in Jan. 2017. She works on the impacts of global change on the physiology of corals and other invertebrates.
  • Dr. Jon Puritz joined the Department of Biological Sciences in Fall 2017. Dr. Puritz studies anthropogenic effects on the evolution of marine populations.

2016

• Dr. Jacqueline Webb (Director, Marine Biology Program/BIO) has been appointed as the first George and Barbara Young Chair in Biology, the sole endowed chair in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences
• Whale Watching at the Mystic Aquarium – Dr. Justin Richard and some of our Marine Biology majors have been doing research on the Belugas at the Aquarium.
• In Fall 2016 we welcomed 74 incoming freshmen who came to URI from 14 states; 59 from New England and the Middle Atlantic States, and another 15 students from IL, VA, MD, MI, MN, TX and CA.
• URI Marine Biology Alumni at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans in July 2016!  All of these alums are now graduate students at other institutions around the country and gave presentations at this national conference. From left to right: Charles Bangley (Class of ’06, now at East Carolina University), Ashley Stoehr (Class of ’10, now at UMass Dartmouth), Dr. Jacqueline Webb, Amber Lisi (Class of ’12, now at UMass Dartmouth), Callie Crawford (Class of ’10, MS College of Charleston).
• Dr. Justin Richard (Sartini Lab, FAVS) who works on reproductive physiology of whales, has recently completed his PhD (2016)  and will be staying at URI as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and will be contributing to the Marine Biology Program. Dr. Richard has worked with the beluga whales at the Mystic Aquarium and has involved 11 URI undergraduates, including many Marine Biology majors, in this work.
• Ashley Marranzino (MS Student, Webb Lab) won the Stoye Award (best student talk) in Genetics, Development and Morphology for her presentation on the sensory biology of deep sea fishes at the annual meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in July 2016.
• Congratulations to the Marine Biology Class of 2016!  See our Alumni Page to see what some of our graduates will be doing after Graduation.
• Renee Bakker (MBio Class of 2016) was awarded the 2016 Academic Excellence Award in Marine Biology at Graduation.
• Congratulations and Bon Voyage to Dr. Jason Ramsay (BS Biological Sciences 2004; PhD BioSci 2012; current lecturer in BioSci, faculty advisor for MBio) who has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Biology at Westfield State University, Westfield, MA.
• Johann Becker (Marine Biology/Ocean Engineering double major, Class of 2018) is a recipient of a 2016 NOAA Hollings Scholarship. He is the 20th URI student to receive this prestigious, nationally competitive scholarship.

2015

• Dr. Susanne Menden-Deuer (GSO) has been elected as a Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Fellows. The ASLO Fellows program was initiated this year to honor ASLO members who have advanced the aquatic sciences via their exceptional contributions to the benefit of the society and its publications, meetings, and other activities. Click here for URI press release.
• Dr. Carol Thornber (BIO), Principal Investigator of Rhode Island EPSCoR, has been named by Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo to the Executive Climate Change Science and Technology Advisory Board. Dr. Peter August (NRS) has been appointed by the Governor to serve as Chair of the Advisory Board.
• Marine Biology Faculty received >$5.5 million in new research grants in 2015:
  • Dr. Bethany Jenkins (CMB) and colleagues at Old Dominion U. and U. South Florida have received a $1 million grant from the NSF Division of Polar Programs that seeks to understand the biological control of iron and its role in phytoplankton productivity, carbon cycling, and climate regulation. This project, which will take Dr. Jenkins and her colleagues to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean, focuses on diatoms, an important group of photosynthetic algae, and the roles that associated bacterial communities play in modulating their growth. The project combines trace metal biogeochemistry, phytoplankton cultivation, and molecular biology to address questions regarding the production of iron-binding compounds and the role of diatom-bacterial interactions in this iron-limited region of the world’s oceans. A high school teacher will be participating in this research, and will be a member of the team going to the Southern Ocean.
  • Drs. Emi Uchida (ENRE), Art Gold (NRS) and colleagues received a $500,000 grant from NSF’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) program, entitled: “Poverty Traps and Mangrove Ecosystem Services in Coastal Tanzania”. More than 35% of mangroves worldwide have been degraded or lost entirely in the past 20 years, and this has significant consequences for human wellbeing. Work will be conducted in coastal Tanzania where mangrove resource degradation and persistent poverty continue to be significant challenges. This project will inform stakeholders involved in coastal resource management and poverty alleviation how changes in mangrove ecosystem services are associated with poverty and vice versa, and examine new approaches to break the vicious cycle of resource degradation and poverty.
  • Dr. Chris Lane (BIO) and colleagues at several other institutions have received a $2.5 million NSF grant, one of five awards made in NSF’s new GoLife program. This work will focus on the biodiversity and evolution of a large and diverse group of microbial eukaryotes that includes the Apicomplexa (e.g. malarial parasites), oomycetes (e.g. parasite water molds) and diatoms (e.g. ecologically important phytoplankton). Most species of eukaryotes are microscopic and are less well-studied with respect to morphology, evolutionary relationships, and genetic variation when compared to more familiar eukaryotes (plants, animals and fungi). Thus, this work will make major contributions to our understanding of biodiversity on Earth, and how we interpret cellular and evolutionary biology in the broadest sense.
  • Dr. Serena Moseman-Valtierra and Dr. Marta Gomez-Chiarri have received a $200,000 grant from Rhode Island Sea Grant for a project entitled “Pathogens, nitrogen, and changing climate: Understanding impacts of multiple stressors on Narragansett Bay shellfish”.
  • Dr. Jacqueline Webb and colleagues at Boston U. and U. Miami have received a $1.2 million grant from NSF’s Biological Oceanography Program entitled “The Role of Larval Orientation Behavior In Determining Population Connectivity”.  Pelagic fish larvae face great challenges in finding suitable settlement sites. This project asks fundamental questions about how the sensory capabilities of the larvae of a coral reef species (a sponge goby) contribute to their navigation behavior. Work on the developmental anatomy and functional morphology of sensory systems is being done in the Webb Lab; behavioral work is being carried out in the field in Belize. A new post-doc, Dr. Yinan Hu, has joined the Webb lab to work on this project.
• Justin Richard, PhD student (and NSF Graduate Research Fellow) in the Sartini Lab, won first place in the PhD student poster competition at the  Alaska Marine Science Symposium (hosted by the North Pacific Research Board) in Anchorage, AK, Jan 19-23. His poster was entitled “Determining the number of exhales necessary for the application of minimally-invasive blow sampling to molecular analyses in wild belugas (Delphinapterus leucas)”. The poster was co-authored by undergraduate Krystle Schultz, and Dr. Becky L. Sartini.
• Congratulations to Jessica Freedman (MBio Class of 2017) and Jamie Schicho (OCE Class of 2017), the 2016 recipients of the NOAA Hollings Scholarship; 19 URI students have won Hollings Scholarships since 2009.
• Johann Becker (MBio) worked with Dr. Brad Wetherbee this summer and their shark tagging activities were covered by NBC10.
• Heather Chan (MBio), Jaclyn Friedman (MBio), Katie Lynch (MBio), and Ryan Quinn (Bio), all undergraduates working in the Moseman-Valtierra lab, were invited to present their research at the URI Leadership Summit hosted by President David M. Dooley, the URI Foundation, and the URI Alumni Association.
• Welcome to the 85 freshmen in the Class of 2019 and our new transfer students!!
• URI at SEA – Profs. Tracey Dalton (MAF) and Jacqueline Webb (BIO) attended the Final Symposium of the Sea Education Association’s program in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (MBC) in June, which focused on the Sargasso Sea. Peg Brandon, President of SEA, realized that there was a disproportionately large URI presence at this event.Left to Right:  Peg Brandon, BS ’80, MMA ’97 (President of SEA), Tundi Agardy, MMA ’85, PhD ’87, William Botta, BS ’15 (URI MBio student in the SEA – MBC program) , Jacqueline Webb (URI faculty – BioSci), Tiffany Smythe, MMA ’07, PhD ’11, Chris McGuire, MMA ’11 (former SEA Captain), Tracy Dalton (URI faculty – MAF), Paul Joyce, PhD ’88 (Dean of SEA).
• Novel “Alternative” Spring Breaks! – Students participated in an R/V Endeavor cruise with Dr. Menden-Deuer (OCG 494 – Field Oceanography), and students in the Scientific Diving course (AFS 433) did their open water work in Bonaire with the URI’s Dive Safety Officers.
• J-Term Field Courses (2015) – Students went to Bonaire to study Coral Reef Conservation and Analysis (NRS 475X) with Dr. Graham Forrester and Anya Watson, Dive Safety Officer, and to the Philippines to study Aquaculture (AFS 492) with Dr. Michael Rice.
• Cruise News!  Jessica Perrault (MB Class of 2015) and David Gleeson (MB Class of 2016), as well as alumni Iain McCoy and Michelle Dennis (Class of 2013) are on the R/V Palmer in the Southern Ocean (Dec. 2014) studying krill with Dr. Ted Durbin (GSO) and other scientists.
• Krystle Schultz (FAVS, Class of 2015), presented her research on “Molecular Analysis of Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas) mtDNA Haplotypes from Single-Exhales Blow Samples.” at the Greater Atlantic Regional Stranding Conference in Mystic, CT.
• Emily Bishop (MBIO, Class of 2015; Hollings Scholar) gave a talk entitled “A new boat-based survey protocol for bull kelp in Puget Sound” at the 16th Annual Northwest Straits MRC Conference, in Port Townsend WA. Her talk was the only one given by a student (!), and was based on her 2014 NOAA Hollings Internship with the Northwest Straits Commission.

2014

• Photo! – 2013 URI Hollings Scholars Nicole Marone (MBio/OCE), Emily Bishop (MBio ’15), and Katharine Egan (MBio ’15) in DC during their orientation week at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) headquarters in Silver Spring, MD
• Cruise News! PhD student Laura Filliger (in Bethany Jenkins’ lab) just completed a month-long cruise in the Southern Ocean aboard the R/V Palmer with a group from Stanford and MBL 
• SACNAS Award Winners from the Moseman-Valtierra Lab – PhD student Melanie Garate won an Outstanding Graduate Presentation award in Environmental Sciences for her talk, “Increased temperatures and excess nutrients may increase greenhouse gas fluxes from coastal systems”. PhD student Rose Martin won Best Graduate Oral Presentation at the New England Estuarine Research Society meeting for her talk, “From a Spartina patens meadow to a Phragmites jungle: a biological invasion may change coastal carbon cycling”.  (SACNAS is the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans In Science) Click here for an article about Melanie and Rose.
• Welcome to the 85 freshmen in the Class of 2018 and our new Transfer Students!!
• Welcome to Dr. Bryan Dewsbury, new Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He will be teaching BIO 101, and will be advising Marine Biology majors.
• The Marine Biology Peer Mentor for 2014-2015 is Emily Bishop. She will hold office hours in the CELS Student Affairs Office (see the Advising and Mentoring page for hours).
• Our new Administrative Graduate Assistant, Julia Johnstone (MS student in the Webb Lab) can be reached at urimbio@etal.uri.edu.
• Small World – Jacqueline Weeks, Rebecca Griffin and Jessica Perrault (all Class of 2015) did the National Student Exchange at U. Hawaii and took Oceanography in Fall of 2013. Their TA was Amanda Ziegler (Mbio Class of 2012), who is currently a PhD student at U. Hawaii in Biological Oceanography.
• William H. Krueger Graduate Studies Award – We are happy to announce the initiation of the Krueger Graduate Studies Award, which was established with an endowment in honor of Dr. William H. Krueger, Ichthyologist in the Zoology Department, now retired.  Dr. Krueger taught Ichthyology and Vertebrate Biology for many years. His research was on the taxonomy of deep-sea fishes and the biology and ecology of the American eel, and he worked on the Ocean Acre Project with colleagues at the Smithsonian.  The first Kreuger Award has been given to Abigail Bockus (Ph.D. student, Seibel Lab). Her project is entitled “Trimethylamine oxide accumulation and use in marine fishes: Characterization and novel functional identification of an often overlooked molecule”

• Ashley Marranzino (MS student, Webb Lab, and NSF Graduate Research Fellow) has been awarded a 2014 Lerner Gray Memorial Fund grant by the American Museum of Natural History to support her MS thesis work on the sensory biology of deep sea fishes.
• Callie Crawford (Class of 2010) received the Jeffrey C. & Carol A. Carrier Poster Award in 2014 at the American Elasmobranch Society meeting in Chatanooga, TN for her MS research at the College of Charleston with Dr. Gavin Naylor.
• Justin Richard, PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Sartini lab who works on Beluga whale physiology at the Mystic Aquarium, was at the White House on May 8, 2014. He and others represented the Mystic Aquarium, which received the 2014 National Medal for Museum and Library Service presented by First Lady Michele Obama.
• Bryan Pestone (Class of 2012) has completed his training and will start as an Ensign in the NOAA Corps serving on the Okeanos Explorer (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/welcome.html).
• Dr. Christopher Lane (BioSci) has received tenure and has been promoted to Associate Professor.
• NOAA Hollings Scholarship! – Rachel Marshall (Aquaculture and Fisheries Technology, Class of 2016) has received a prestigious, nationally competitive NOAA Hollings Scholarship in 2014.  She is the 17th URI student to receive this scholarship since 2009.
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! – Melanie Garate (PhD student in Dr. Serena Moseman-Valtierra’s lab), was awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which brings to three the number of current URI students who hold this prestigious award (the other two are Ashley Marranzino – in the Webb Lab, and Justin Richard – in the Sartini lab). Matt Birk, a current student in the Seibel Lab, was given an “Honorable Mention” for this Fellowship.
• More NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! – Two of our recent graduates have received NSF Graduate Fellowships for their graduate studies – Amy Battocletti (now a PhD student at Georgetown University), and Leah Lewis (currently working at NMFS Narragansett, who will be doing her PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography starting in Fall 2014). Russell Dauksis (also Class of 2013) received an Honorable Mention and will be starting graduate work at Cal State Northridge in Fall 2014.
• Ben Sevey and Katelyn Dash (both Class of 2014) have been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
• Graduate School Acceptances (that we know of!)
  • Sarah Merolla (Class of 2014, recipient of 2014 URI Academic Excellence Award in Marine Biology) – will attend Cal State Northridge (MS) – coral reef ecology
  • Christopher Holland (Class of 2014) – will be attending Texas A&M (PhD) – animal behavior
  • Eilea Knotts (Class of 2014) – will be attending University of South Carolina (PhD) – invertebrate physiology
  • Taylor Clement (Class of 2014) – will do a MS at Western Washington University on metagenomics and metatranscriptomics of microplankton and picoplankton in Puget Sound.
  • Nicole Leporacci (Class of 2013) – will be attending College of Charleston for an MS
  • Russell Dauksis (Class of 2013) – will attend Cal State Northridge for an MS in fish ecology
  • Brooke Konkle (Class of 2013) – will attend Texas A&M – Corpus Christi for a MS in aquaculture
  • Leah Lewis (Class of 2013) – recipient of a NSF Graduate Fellowship, will do her PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD.
  • Katelyn Dash and Chelsea Stephens (both Class of 2014) will be attending graduate school at URI, and will work with in the Lane Lab and Irvine Lab, respectively.

2013

• Cruise News – From Dr. Bethany Jenkins on the R/V Palmer in the Antarctic –“Yesterday we celebrated the graduation of two senior Marine Biology majors, Iain McCoy and Michelle Dennis, aboard the R/V Palmer in the Antarctic Peninsula.  They are aboard the ship as part of a research team led by Dr. Ted Durbin (GSO) studying krill biology and behavior in the Antarctic.  They received a “Bachelors of Antarctic Science degrees with Minors in Krill biology” signed by the Captain of our vessel. We had a party in the galley and made liquid nitrogen ice cream.  Since Iain has worked at Brickley’s for years, he had additional expertise to offer. We are very proud of Michelle and Iain, the hard work they are doing. Last night some humpback whales came close to the ship”
• NOAA Hollings Scholarships 2013!!! – Katharine Egan (MB), Emily Bishop (MB), and Nicole Marone (double major MB/OCE) – all Class of 2015. In addition, Emily Thomesen was a finalist. URI students have been awarded 16 Hollings Scholars (2009-2013), which places us in the top three institutions in the country with respect to numbers during this time period.
• Ryann Rossi (Class of 2013) – Worked in Dr. Scott Nixon’s laboratory at GSO, with graduate student Brita Jessen on cycling of nutrients in the mangrove forests of Puerto Rico. She continued her work after graduation in December 2012, supported, in part, by a grant from the Cobb Endowment. She won the Best Student Poster Award at the Fall 2012 meeting of the New England Estuarine Research Society (NEERS).  She has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to continue her work on Mangroves at North Carolina State University with Dr. Craig Layman.
• Nicholas Jouett (Class of 2014) –  He has received funding from various sources to go back to the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS) in May/June to supplement his research project on the fire sponge microbial consortium started when he was a student at BIOS (www.bios.org) last fall in the URI in Bermuda program.  He also received an award from the Cobb Endowment to carry out a population study on crabs in Point Judith Pond during the summer while working the summer camp where he is the marine biology director.

• Hollings Internships Placements for 2012 Recipients
  • Sarah Merolla – Climate Change Analyses of Fish Early Life Processes, NOAA Lab, Sandy Hook, NJ.
  • Eilea Knotts – Analysis of Legacy Archived Towed-Diver Imagery to Establish Trends in Benthic Composition Across the Pacific Islands, NOAA, Honolulu, HI
  • Benjamin Sevey – “Fostering a Sense of Wonder: Promoting Experiential Learning through Outdoor Discoveries on the Coast of Maine“, Wells Estuarine Reserve in Wells, ME.
  • Brenton Wallin – “Comparison of Water Column height Data obtained from Tsunami Buoy and Wave Glider in the Gulf of Mexico“, National Data Buoy Center, Stennis Space Center, MS.
  • Michael Canton – “”Effect of Dam Removal on Diadromous Fish Recovery and Restoration of Ecosystem Services“, NOAA, Orono, ME.
  • Callie Veelenturf – “Assessing Risks to Sea Turtle Nesting Sites by Proximity and Type of Coastal Development” at NOAA Headquarters, Silver Spring, MD.
• Shelby Rinehardt  (Class of 2013, BioSci) –  Awarded Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Fellowship. In Fall 2013, she will be a PhD student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology through San Diego State University and UC Davis working with Dr. Jeremy Long in Marine Chemical Ecology.
• Nate Andrews (Class of 2015) – Awarded NSF REU Fellowship at the Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL, Woods Hole) to work and live on Plum Island, MA (an NSF LTER) in the TIDES REU Program.

2012

• Gordon Ober (PhD student, Thornber Lab) is a co-author on paper in Nature
• Michele Guidone (Ph.D. 2012, Thornber Lab) won the best graduate student presentation award at the 2012 Northeast Algal Symposium and is now an Assistant Professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
• Lianha Gonda-King (MS student, Preisser Lab) and Jordan Balaban (Wilga Lab) both received Grants-In-Aid to fund their research from Sigma Xi, the national Scientific Research Society.
• Dr. Anabela Maia (PhD student, Wilga Lab) has been awarded the 2012 URI Excellence in Doctoral Research Award by the URI Graduate School.
• Dr. Nicole Rohr (PhD 2012, Thornber Lab) – after completing the CELS IGERT Program, and a Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship in DC this past year, Nicole is now the Legislative Assistant for Rep. Thompson of CA. She will cover issues related to oceans and fisheries, natural resources, agriculture, energy, etc….In the next few weeks she will be introducing her first pieces of legislation!
• Russell Dauksis (Class of 2013) has been awarded a nationally competitive Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate award offered for students in the STEM disciplines. He is also a 2011 NOAA Hollings Scholar and did a NOAA Internship in Puerto Rico this summer studying coral conservation.
• 2012 Hollings Scholarships! – Five Marine Biology majors and one Ocean Engineering major have been awarded nationally competitive NOAA Hollings Scholarships. They are: Michael Canton (Marine Biology), Eilea Knotts (Marine Biology), Sarah Merolla (Marine Biology), Benjamin Sevey (Marine Biology), Callie Veelenturf (Marine Biology and Wildlife and Conservation Biology), and Brenton Wallin (Ocean Engineering). A total of 13URI students have received Hollings Scholarships over the past four consecutive years!

2011

• Fulbright Fellowships! Megan O’Brien (Marine Biology, Class of 2011, 2009 Hollings Scholar, and MS student in the Lane Lab) has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to study Fisheries Management at a University in Iceland. Benjamin Negrete (Marine Biology, Class of 2012 and Hollings Scholar) was named a Fulbright Finalist.
• Correna Blewett (’11) and Shelby Rinehart (’13) were awarded URI Undergraduate Research Initiative Grants by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development and the Office of the Provost – both work in Dr. Thornber’s lab.
• Russell Dauksis (Class of 2013) was awarded a NOAA Ernest Hollings Scholarship. Russell is the 7th URI student (and the 6th CELS student) to receive this prestigious national scholarship in the past three years.
• Margot Schwalbe (Ph.D. student, Webb Lab) and Michele Guidone (Ph.D. student, Thornber Lab) were awarded URI Graduate Research Fellowships for 2011-2012.
• Amy Maas (Ph.D. student, Seibel Lab) was awarded a highly competitive Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Post-Doctoral Fellowship starting in Fall 2011.
• Connor Capizzano awarded the Class of 2011 University Academic Excellence Award in Marine Biology (also a NOAA Hollings Scholar)
• Graduate students Margot Schwalbe (Webb Lab), Leanne Elder (Seibel Lab), Jessica Conover (Thornber Lab) and Christine Newton (Thornber Lab) received the 2011 Biological Sciences Graduate Student Awards for Teaching Excellence
• Research by graduate students in the Wilga Lab were featured on Canadian Discovery Channel: Anabela Maia‘s work on the function of the dorsal fin in sharks,  Jason Ramsay‘s work on shark feeding mechanics.

2010 Research Cruises

• Dr. Brad Seibel (Biological Sciences) and undergrads Ashley Stoehr (Class of 2010), and Kristina Camarena (Class of 2011) were in the Gulf of California on the R/V New Horizon (Scripps Inst. Oceanography) examining “Hypoxia and the ecology, behavior and physiology of jumbo squid, Dosidicus gigas” (collaborative grant, funded by NSF). Click here for photos from cruise.
• Dr. Dreux Chappell (post-doc in Dr. Bethany Jenkin’s lab, Dept. Cell and Molecular Biology) participated in a cruise on the R/V Melville (Scripps Inst. Oceanography, cruise MV1008) looking at phytoplankton (diatom) distributions with reference to grazing controls and trace metal limitation in the Costa Rica Upwelling Dome. Recent graduate Heather Cyr (Marine Biology, Class of 2010) assisted on the cruise.
• R/V Endeavor cruise May 2010 (Ph.D. student Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, GSO – Chief Scientist) – Physics, chemistry and biology of Rhode Island’s offshore waters (sponsored by the RI Endeavor Program). Thor Jensen, Megan O’Brien, and Kristina Camarena were student participants on this cruise.
• R/V Endeavor cruise October 2010 (Ph.D. student Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, GSO – Chief Scientist) -Physics, chemistry and biology of Rhode Island’s offshore waters (sponsored by the RI Endeavor Program). Amanda Ziegler (Class of 2012) and Connor Cappizzano (Class of 2011) were student participants.

2010

• The Class of 2010!!! Read about their first steps after graduation on the Marine Biology Alumni page
• 2010 Recipients of the Stan Cobb Endowment Independent Research Awards – Amy Maynard (Class of 2010) “Effects of predation by fishes on the success of coral reef restoration” and Stephanie Schofield “Restoration of Acropora palmata coral colonies”
• Amy Maynard (Class of 2010), Dawn Simmons (Class of 2009) and Kelly Pennoyer (Class of 2008) published a paper based on the project they carrie dout when they were on the URI Bermuda Program. SEE: Wood JB, Maynard AE, Lawlor AG, Sawyer EK, Simmons DM, Pennoyer KE, Derby CD. 2010. Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea, use ink as a defense against predatory French grunts, Haemulon flavolineatum.  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 388: 1-58.
• Megan O’Brien, Connor Cappizzano and Michael Justa served as volunteers for the First RIhode Island Sea Grant Coast 5K Run held in on Sept. 19, 2010 to raise funds for student scholarships
• Benjamin Negrete (’12), Megan Nepshinsky (’12) and Alexa Kretsch (Aquaculture and Fisheries Technology ’12) awarded nationally competitive Hollings Scholarships by NOAA. URI currently has more NOAA Hollings Scholars in the area of marine biology than any other research university in the US.
• Nicole Rohr (Ph.D. student and IGERT Fellow, Thornber Lab) – Awarded a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship by the National Sea Grant College Program, which matches fellows with hosts in the legislative and executive branches of government in Washington, DC. She is working with Senator Roger Wicker of MS on his marine policy, including the outcome of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Ashley Stoehr and Ananda Fraser awarded Class of 2010 University Academic Excellence Awards (for Marine Biology and Political Science, and for Marine Affairs, respectively). These two outstanding students were also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
• Dr. Marta Gomez-Chiarri (Dept. Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science) – recipient of the 2010 CELS Research Excellence Award.
• Ananda Fraser (’10) named a member of the Atlantic-10 2010 Men’s & Women’s Indoor Track & Field Academic All-Conference Team in recognition of both her academic and athletic accomplishments.
• Emily Vincent (’10) and Christine Newton (MS student, Thornber Lab) both won Best Student Poster awards at the national Benthic Ecology Meetings (Wilmington, DE).
• Nicole Rohr (Ph.D. student and IGERT Fellow, Thornber Lab) awarded a P.E.O. Scholar Award, a merit-based scholarship that is awarded to women pursuing a Ph.D. or post-doc and are viewed to have high potential to significantly contribute to their field of study.
• Ashley Heinze (’10), Joseph Marini (’10), Megan O’Brien (’11), Ashley Stoehr (’10), and Emily Vincent (’10) – awarded URI Undergraduate Research Initiative Grants by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development and the Office of the Provost.
• Amanda Ziegler (’11) and Emily Vincent (’10) win first and third place prizes, respectively, at the annual URI Coastal Fellows Poster Celebration.(read more….)…See article on Emily’s research.
• Megan O’Brien ( ’11) -awarded a Goldwater Scholarship and a NOAA Hollings Scholarship
• Connor Capizzano ( ’11) – awarded a NOAA Hollings Scholarship
• Dr. Cheryl Wilga (Assoc. Prof., Bio Sci) – awarded the 2009 CELS Faculty Research Excellence Award