Congratulations to the SEASPACE 2001 Scholarship Winners!

Since 1981 SEASPACE, Inc. has awarded over $335,000 to 347 college students pursuing degrees in the marine/aquatic sciences while attending US universities. These students have demonstrated excellence in their academic records and need for financial assistance. This year we have selected fourteen individuals from forty applicants to share in a total of $20,000 funded by the proceeds generated by the SEASPACE weekend. Scholarship committee members are Claudia Ludwig, Barbara Stiranka, Christian Clark, Glen Payne, Dick Zingula, Jim Ward, Jesse Cancelmo and Carolyn Peterson.

Undergraduates/Beginning Graduates

Jena Bills is beginning her graduate studies this fall at University of California at Santa Barbara in Marine Resource Management. During her undergraduate work she participated in testing for biotoxins in shellfish. She also investigated possible medicinal compounds produced by marine organisms which inhabit oil rigs. Jena is a 1999 SEASPACE recipient.

Mikhail Blikshteyn will start his graduate career at the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington. In 1999 Mikhail studied the species present in the mangrove swamps of Hawaii and most recently, he has developed an independent project studying how zooplankton affect the pelagic fish catch in Lake Tanganyika. He would like to work as a research biologist in fish management or conservation. He was a winner in 1999.

Leah Harman has just begun her graduate work at the University of North Carolina in Marine Biology. The focus of her project is to determine the foraging ecology of the Royal Tern and the impact of pollutants ingested by adults and chicks of this species near Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout and the Cape Fear River. This test group will serve as bio-indicator species for the health of the surrounding communities. She will pursue a career in academia.

Eric Van Velzen is pursuing a degree in Maritime Studies at Texas A & M University at Galveston. He has been involved with the excavation of the Civil War blockade runner Denbigh, supervising the work in the ship's engine room and its associated machinery. Eric plans to pursue a Ph.D. in nautical archeology at either Texas A & M University at College Station or East Carolina University.

Graduates

Alison Arrak, a 2000 SEASPACE recipient, is a masters student in Marine Conservation Education at New York University. She is researching outdoor education programming, attempting to develop marine conservation education with the aim to teach marine field techniques, expose students to the outdoor classroom and provide them with a useful career experience. After graduation, Alison plans to start her own company in marine academic expeditions.

Yvonne Coursey is pursuing her Ph.D. in biology at the University of South Florida. She is studying the immune system function of the horseshoe crab. This invertebrate is important because a derivative of its blood cells is used for sterility testing of medical products. Identification of the origin of these blood cells may make in vitro production (propagation outside the body) possible and reduce the need for harvesting the animals. After graduation, Yvonne will seek employment with a university or medical research laboratory enabling her to continue this line of research for medical advancement. Yvonne received a SEASPACE award in 2000.

Caroline Delong, a 1999 SEASPACE winner, is working towards her doctorate in Psychology at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu. Her goal is to determine which elements of signals received by dolphins, both visually and echoically, represent certain object features, such as intensity, size, shape or texture. She plans to pursue a position in academics so she can teach and continue her research interests.

Sharon Lumsden is a masters student at Texas A & M University at College Station studying Oceanography. She investigates the dynamic and complex relationship between predators, their phytoplankton prey and the microbial loop in Galveston Bay. Her findings are important for forecasting and constructing effective management strategies. She will continue on for her Ph.D. and a career in academics.

Sangsoo Ryu is a doctoral candidate at Texas A & M University at College Station in Ocean Engineering. He is using computer simulation to predict the nature of ocean waves near coastal areas as an alternative to expensive tank testing. After graduation he would like to teach at the university level or apply his research to industrial problems developing ocean structures. He was a SEASPACE winner in 2000.

Marie Cox Trone is pursuing her doctorate at University of Southern Mississippi in Experimental Psychology. Her dissertation will investigate the sound preferences of captive bottlenose dolphins. Marie was a scholarship recipient for 1989, 1990 and 1999.

Robert Wells is a masters candidate at Texas A & M University at Galveston in Marine Biology. His interests lie in defining the structural and biological importance of the Sargassum mats as habitats. He also plans a detailed assessment of the early life history of the Amberjack to help establish prudent management practices. Ultimately, Robert would like to pursue his Ph.D. in the field of Marine Fisheries Ecology.

Shannon Williamson attends the University of South Florida pursuing her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography. She studies the types of relationships between marine bacteria and viruses and the effect on their environment. This environment is a possible untapped reservoir of future pharmaceutical products and she would like to apply the skills that she has acquired through her investigations of virus-host interactions.

Clare Wormald is seeking her Ph.D. at the University of Rhode Island in the Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on whether the overflow of inhabitants from marine reserves into coral reef habitats increases richness, density and/or biomass. Post graduation, Clare intends to continue her research interests in the value of marine protected areas as a tool for sustainable management of the marine environment.

Amy Wright also attends the University Of South Florida where she is seeking her masters in Geology. She utilizes sediment from drift deposits off the coasts of Ireland and Iceland along with sea surface temperature, ice volume and stable isotope data to investigate the responses of the North Atlantic Ocean to the glacial/interglacial cycles 500-1000 years ago. This study may help to understand past sea level fluctuations which were driven by ice volume changes. Her findings could be important in light of global warming.

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   Last updated on 9/11/2002, by PDM

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