Category Archives: people

Malouf scholarship deadline announced

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Oregon Sea Grant is accepting applications for the fourth annual Robert E. Malouf Marine Studies Scholarship, open to graduate students enrolled at any college or university in Oregon working toward a degree  in a  field compatible with Oregon Sea Grant’s mandate and areas of interest.

Relevant fields could include (but are not limited to) biological, geological, physical and chemical sciences; marine resource management and policy; marine resource economics; social sciences; engineering; geology; education or public health.

This annual scholarship is intended to support the efforts of students focusing on marine-related   research, education or public engagement. The program is named for Robert Malouf, Oregon Sea Grant director from 1991-2008.

Applications for the 2011-2012 scholarship are due by 5 pm June 17.  The scholarship will provide up to $10,800 dispersed in 12 monthly payments beginning September 1, 2011

Read more information…

Sea Grant Summer Scholars accepting applications now

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2010 Summer Scholars get acquainted on the OSU Challenge CourseOregon Sea Grant is accepting applications from undergraduates for the Summer Scholars program.

This 10-week program places high caliber junior and senior undergraduate students from around the country with federal, state, and local public agencies to provide students with hands-on experience under the mentorship of a career professional, with a goal of  preparing them for graduate school and careers in marine science, policy, management, and outreach.

Participants gain  professional skills, agency workplace experience, and real-life practice in marine resource science, policy, management, and outreach and support agency programs and initiatives.

The 2011 Summer Scholars will be placed in Oregon in Lincoln, Coos, and Benton Counties, where they will assist host agencies with field work, lab work, analysis, natural resource policy research, public education, outreach and community engagement efforts.

The program is open to any undergraduate student who will have completed two years of study by summer 2011, and who is currently enrolled in any U.S. college or university may apply. Students of color, from first nations, non-traditional students, and those from other diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We seek students with a variety of interests including marine science, biology, ecology, zoology, environmental science, journalism, education, political science, or economics.

More information and application guidelines available here. The deadline to apply is April 1.

As Kitzhaber is sworn in, a look back

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The last time John Kitzhaber was Oregon’s governor, he made a major policy address at Oregon State University in January 2000, on the “Oregon Approach to Environmental Problems.”

Now, with Kitzhaber returning for a new four-year term, his reflections  on the environment and politics and on salmon recovery 11 years ago may have renewed interest. The 30-minute speech, introduced by then-OSU President Paul Risser and produced by Oregon Sea Grant as part of the John Byrne lecture series:

Sea Grant director gives fish-eye view of Gulf spill

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Steve Brandt at seaOregon Sea Grant director Stephen Brandt will give a public talk tonight about  findings from six seasons of subsurface exploration in the low-oxygen waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. And he’ll share what was different about this year’s cruise, which began after the United States’ largest recorded oil well blow-out was capped in July.

The informal talk starts at 6 pm at the Old World Deli in Corvallis, as part of the Science Pub series.

“Recently there has been an alarming increase, in the spatial and temporal extent of low-oxygen conditions in estuarine and coastal waters,” said Brandt. “We call them ‘dead zones’ in the media because we presume there are drastic impacts on living resources such as shrimp and fish.”

In his talk, Brandt will show how low-oxygen conditions, which scientists call “hypoxia,” can affect habitat quality, food webs and growth rates. Some fish, he added, may actually benefit from these conditions.

Brandt’s team, which has been collecting subsurface data on ocean conditions and marine life in the Gulf for six years, received a National Science Foundation emergency response grant this year to do another sampling cruise following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster. He kept a blog during the trip.

Science Pub Corvallis is part of a series of free, informal science lectures sponsored at pubs around the state by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry; the Corvallis lectures are cosponsored by OSU’s Terra magazine and the Downtown Corvallis Association.

More fellowship opportunities

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Oregon Sea Grant is accepting graduate and postgraduate student applications for two prestigious Washington, D.C. fellowships:

The NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship (application deadline Jan. 28, 2011) was established in 1996 to provide on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students and to provide project assistance to state coastal zone management programs. The program matches postgraduate students with state coastal zone programs to work on projects proposed by the state and selected by the fellowship sponsor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center. This two-year opportunity offers a competitive salary, medical benefits, and travel and relocation expense reimbursement. Read more …

The Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships (application deadline Feb. 18, 2011)   provides a unique educational experience to students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. The program matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts  in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid fellowship. Read more …

Meet some of our current and recent fellows.

Sea Grant director to blog Gulf research cruise

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Stephen Brandt, director of Oregon Sea Grant, embarks tomorrow on a week-long research cruise attempting to map and quantify the effects of this summer’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the marine ecology of the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The cruise, supported by a National Science Foundation rapid-response grant, includes scientific collaborators from Oregon State University, the University of Maryland and Eastern Carolina University. The scientists will be building on data they’ve collected from the same region in seven years of research cruises there.

Time and shipboard Internet connections permitting, they intend to blog about the experience at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/sciencefromthespill/

Read more about the research

Sea Grant Summer Scholars sought science experience

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Summer Scholars visit fish disease labCORVALLIS, Ore. – Asked what he learned this summer, Ian Heller said, “Time and tide wait for no man.” With anyone else, it’d be a tired cliché, but with Heller, a student working with the Environmental Protection Agency, the lesson was personal and he was the one who was tired, waking at 5:30 a.m. most mornings.

Heller and fellow EPA student-worker Phillip Sanchez started crewing early mornings on small boats that pulled trawl nets through the Yaquina and Alsea marshes. The trawls would reveal how the estuaries are used by fish species that are economically important to Oregon.

Heller, a senior at Vassar College in New York, and Sanchez, a recent graduate of University of Florida, are two of the five “Summer Scholars” in a new program directed by Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University. The 10-week program gives undergraduates a taste of working in marine science, policy, and management by pairing them with mentors in federal, state and local agencies.

Over the summer, the students conducted research and analyses in the natural and social sciences, education and outreach, and policy. They helped agencies with their existing work and gained an understanding for what it is like to work in the public sector. The students wrote weekly reflections in which they discussed their previous week, challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and their plan for the following week.

According to Julie Risien, program organizer with Sea Grant, “the general idea was to expose students to working in marine science and policy in the public sector – what is it like to work for a government agency? What do agencies do? What is their role in marine science or monitoring, or in setting, implementing, and evaluating marine policies?”

Sea Grant Summer Scholars present their work

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Oregon Sea Grant’s first class of undergraduate Summer Scholars will present their projects and research in an August 11 symposium at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

The symposium runs from 1 to 3 pm in the Guin Library Seminar Room.

Sea Grant’s Summer Scholars program, launched this year, provides undergraduates with hands-on experience and training in marine science and resource management. Students are placed with Oregon resource agencies for the summer, assigned to specific research or outreach programs, and trained in subjects such as ecosystem-based management, professional and scientific communication, field-based scientific methods, natural resource policy development, and roles of federal, state and local governments in natural resource management.

The scholars who will be presenting their work on Aug. 11 are:

  • AnnaRose Adams, Oregon State University, assigned to the Oregon Sea Grant program office on the OSU campus, under the mentorship of program director Steve Brandt and Julie Risien.
  • Daniel Brusa, SUNY-Rockland Community College, New York, who is assigned to the Lincoln County Sea Grant Extention team in Newport, under the mentorship of Extension faculty member Kaety Hildenbrand.
  • Ian Heller, Vassar College, New York, assigned to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s West Coast Ecology Division at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, under the mentorship of Ted Dewitt.
  • Phillip Sanchez, University of Florida-Gainesville, assigned to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s West Coast Ecology Division at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, under the mentorship of Jim Power.
  • Katie Wrubel, California State University-Monterey Bay, assigned to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Charleston office, under the mentorship of Scott Groth.

New blog showcases scholars

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Summer Scholars at fish disease lab

Oregon Sea Grant’s graduate and undergraduate fellows and interns are sharing their summer experiences in marine science, policy and resource management in a new blog, Sea Grant Scholars.

Sea Grant annually places qualified university students and recent graduates in fellowships and internships with marine science labs, resource agencies and legislative bodies, in locations from the Oregon Coast to Washington, D.C. The positions offer those interested in marine science and resource management careers an opportunity to learn first-hand what those careers entail, while providing valuable support to scientists, managers and policy-makers on real-world projects.

Our first scholar-bloggers are taking part in our new Summer Scholars program for undergraduates. They are:

AnnaRose Adams, Oregon State University,  assigned to the Oregon Sea Grant program office on the OSU campus, under the mentorship of program director Steve Brandt and Julie Risien.

Daniel Brusa, SUNY-Rockland Community College, New York, assigned to the Lincoln County Sea Grant Extention team in Newport, under the mentorship of Extension faculty member Kaety Hildenbrand.

Ian Heller, Vassar College, New York, assigned to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s West Coast Ecology Division at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, under the mentorship of Ted Dewitt.

Phillip Sanchez,   University of Florida-Gainesville, assigned to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s West Coast Ecology Division at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, under the mentorship of Jim Power.

Katie Wrubel,  California State University-Monterey Bay, assigned to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Charleston office, under the mentorship of Scott Groth.

Sea Grant names three finalists for Extension leader post

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Oregon Sea Grant has named three finalists for the post of Sea Grant Extension program leader, being vacated by the retirement of Jay Ramussen. The candidates, who have been invited to the Oregon State University campus in May for interviews and public presentations, are:

  • Professor Conner Bailey,  Department of Agriculture and Rural Sociology,  Auburn University
  • Dr. Tom DeGomez, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson
  • James Humphreys, Fisheries Director, Americas for the Marine Stewardship Council, Seattle, Washington

Details about the candidates and their interview schedules are  posted on the Sea Grant Web site . We hope to offer an online video feed of their public presentations for those unable to attend; when the video links are available, they will be listed there as well.

Ramussen, who has served as the program’s Associate Director as well as leading a 17-member Sea Grant Extension team since 1996,  formally retired earlier this year but has been serving on an interim basis until his successor is named. Earlier this month, he was the recipient of OSU Extension’s Alberta Johnson award for exemplary leadership.

Sea Grant Extension is the public outreach and engagement arm of Oregon Sea Grant, bringing the resources of research and higher education to bear on real-world issues important to those who live near, earn their livelihoods from, and care about the state’s ocean and coast.  Extension faculty and staff work on the Oregon coast and across the state to address critical marine and coastal issues. They  include include community-based agents, subject-matter specialists and educators based at OSU’s  coastal research stations, in county Extension offices and on the main OSU campus in Corvallis.