Maryland Marine Notes: November-December 1998 Article - Maryland Students Receive Knauss Fellowships

Volume 16, Number 6 • November-December 1998

Maryland Students Receive Knauss Fellowships

Tina Armstrong and Jennifer Merrill, two University System of Maryland students, both in doctoral programs in Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences (MEES), are recipients of Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships for 1999.

The fellowship Program, begun in 1979 and coordinated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Sea Grant Office, provides graduate students across the nation with an opportunity to spend a year working with policy and science experts in Washington, D.C.

Tina Armstrong will spend her fellowship year in NOAA's National Oceans Service in the National Center for Coastal Ocean Service (NCCOS), where she will contribute to efforts at predicting coastal ocean responses to natural and anthropogenic change. Working with advisor Brian P. Bradley, Armstrong has focused her doctoral research on the use of protein expression signatures as a biomarker of anthropogenic stressors on aquatic organisms. She will complete her doctoral work in December at the University System of Maryland, Baltimore and will also receive an advanced certificate in Policy Science. She received her bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences, with a focus on Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, from Cornell University.

For her fellowship year, Jennifer Merrill will serve as a staff member in the office of U.S. Senator Carl Levin, who replaces Senator John Glenn as Democratic chair of the Great Lakes Task Force. The Task Force covers both the Senate and House and is a bipartisan subset of the Northeast-Midwest Coalition.

[Jennifer Merrill at Maryland Sea Grant]

[Jennifer Merrill at Maryland Sea Grant]

She received her B.S. in Environmental and Forest Biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse in 1993. She enrolled in the MEES program the summer after graduating and was a student of Jeffrey Cornwell at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Horn Point Laboratory where her research has focused on two water quality maintenance functions of tidal freshwater marshes, burial of particulate nutrients and denitrification. She will complete her degree at UMCES in May.

The process for selecting Knauss Fellows begins with the submission of applications by candidates recommended for their excellence by Sea Grant Directors across the nation. The National Sea Grant office then conducts a rigorous review process and awards fellowships to the top candidates. This year the Fellowship program received fifty-five nominations and presented thirty awards. Maryland was one of six programs with two fellowship awards.

Over the years, Knauss Fellows have gained experience in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government in locations such as the offices of U.S. Senators and Representatives, Congressional subcommittees and agencies such as the National Science Foundation and NOAA. Fellowships run from February 1 to January 31 and pay a stipend of $30,000.

The application deadline for next year's Knauss Fellowship Program is September 8, 1999; however it is useful for those interested in applying to contact Maryland Sea Grant in early spring for guidance and possible volunteer project opportunities. For more information, visit the web at www.nsgo.seagrant.org/Knauss.html or request an application brochure from Susan Leet, Maryland Sea Grant College, phone (301) 405-6375.

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