Fellowship Experiences

This is the first dispatch by Sophie Caradine-Taber, who joined a research cruise through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program run by Maryland Sea Grant.  |  I am spending this summer pursuing an unusual opportunity: spending two weeks aboard a research ship helping with research in the Arctic!

When I introduce myself as an environmental anthropologist, there’s often a pause followed by a look of confusion and then finally, “You’re a what?” 

Climate change is an accepted phenomenon throughout the scientific community, but the perspective of the general public can often be quite different. As a young researcher in the field of climate change, I often find myself in situations where climate change skeptics expect me to defend my research, which examines the effects of climate change on juvenile blue crabs.

My senior year as a biology undergraduate at Drexel University was marked by the opening of the new Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building. At its center stands a 22-foot wide, 80-foot tall biowall. It is a beautiful and symbiotic array of tropical plants and microbes that naturally purify the air. I didn’t know it then, but it was my first exposure to ecologically engineered systems.  Read more...

Before starting graduate school, I was convinced that learning to be a sociologist and getting a Ph.D. would be a matter of mastering the texts assigned in seminars or recommended in lectures. It never occurred to me that doing research — the actual practice — would teach me the most about my chosen field.  Read more...