Maryland Marine Notes: January-February 2000 Sidebar - Maryland Students Receive Knauss Fellowships

Volume 18, Number 1 • January-February 2000


		Maryland Students Receive Knauss Fellowships
		Kim Benson, Ruth Kelty and David O'Brien, all University System of Maryland graduate students, are Maryland recipients of Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships for the year 2000. Benson is in the Masters program for Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology on the College Park Campus; Kelty and O'Brien are working on Doctorate and Masters degrees, respectively, in the System-wide Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Science (MEES) program. 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, DC.
Kim Benson		Kim Benson will spend her fellowship year with NOAA's National Ocean Service, in the Office of Coastal Resource Management's Marine Sanctuary Program, where she will work on management issues in several sanctuaries around the country. Benson received her Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology from the College of Life Sciences at the College Park campus in 1997. For the past two years, she has been a graduate research assistant helping with grants proposal management at the Maryland Sea Grant College. While there, she conducted a special project in which she analyzed all twenty years of the program's research data and created an interactive database for that information and for ongoing and future research. The database includes research projects, personnel, institutions and resulting publications and will be available on the program's website. In September, 1998 Benson served as an intern at the State Department's Office of Marine Conservation where she worked on international agreements for protection of the sea turtle and the conservation of commercial fish species. Benson has focused her recent graduate work on biological conservation in the marine and coastal environments with an emphasis on an interdisciplinary and experiential approach to research, policy and management in problem solving.
Ruth Kelty		Ruth Kelty will devote her fellowship year to working in NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) in the Office of the Senior Scientist. The projects she will focus on include developing a national eutrophication program for NOS and developing a strategy for a national coastal monitoring program. She will also continue to pursue her interest in coral reefs by helping NOS with the Coral Reef Task Force initiative. She graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor's Degree from Middlebury College with a joint major in Biology and Environmental Studies. She is currently in her fifth year of graduate study in the MEES program where she is working toward a Ph.D. in Marine Biology which she hopes to complete this summer. Her dissertation research investigates the mechanisms of phosphorus uptake and utilization by corals and sea anemones in relation to coral physiology and reef eutrophication. She has been conducting her field and laboratory work at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research under the supervision of scientist Fred Lipschultz.
David O'Brian		For his fellowship, David O'Brien will work full-time with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, in the Office of Protected Resources, Endangered Species Division, under Division Chief Wanda Cain. His exact role in the division has not been defined yet, but possibilities include working with recovery efforts for sea turtles, Pacific salmon or other listed or petitioned species. O'Brien completed his B.S. degree in Zoology from the University of Massachusetts in 1990. Since then he has worked in freshwater research, including two years as an aquaculture extension agent with the Peace Corps in Cameroon. He enrolled in the MEES Program in September 1997 and is working with researcher Ed Houde at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Chesapeake Biological Laboratory to study the causes of recruitment variability of the bay anchovy, the most abundant fish prey species in the Chesapeake Bay. He hopes to complete his Masters degree this summer.
		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. Fellowships run from February 1 to January 31 and pay a stipend of $32,000. The application deadline for next year's Knauss Fellowship Program is August 31, 2000; however it is useful for those interested in applying to contact Maryland Sea Grant in early spring for guidance and possible volunteer project opportunities. Student must be enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program in a marine related field at an accredited institution in the United States. For more information, or an application brochure, contact: Susan Leet at Maryland Sea Grant by phone, (301) 405-6375, or e-mail, leet@mdsg. umd.edu. Fellowship information is also available on the web at www.nsgo.seagrant.org/Knauss.html.

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