Seventeen Oregon State University students received scholarships and awards totaling $97,240 for research and education activities at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) for the 2007-08 academic year.
The awards were presented during a June 13th symposium and poster session at the Hatfield center, where donors were invited to meet the students and learn more about their research projects.
Some of the HMSC scholarships are given for excellence in academic and research performance in any marine related discipline, while others encourage research in a specific area, such as fisheries ecology and management, or marine education.
Funding for the scholarships and fellowships comes from endowments and private donations to the HMSC, some of which have been providing financial assistance to students for more than three decades. The awards support research in academic disciplines as diverse as Fisheries and Wildlife, Microbiology, Oceanography, and Animal Sciences.
“We are very grateful for the continued support of private donors, whose contributions enable students to pursue research of high quality across various disciplines” said George Boehlert, Director of the HMSC.
One of the largest sources of support is the Mamie L. Markham Research Endowment, which annually provides funding for several students with awards of up to $10,000 each. Most of these students spend at least one year in residence on the coast so that they can work with HMSC scientists and take advantage of lab and field research opportunities found there.
Phoebe Zarnetski, who is working towards her Ph.D. in Zoology at OSU, received a $10,000 Markham award to pursue research on beach grass invasions on coasts of the Pacific Northwest. Zarnetski’s research is focused on how two non-native beach grass species are impacting the shape and formation of dunes, which play a critical role in the ecology of various native plant and animal species.
“Understanding the impacts of these grasses on the geomorphology of the dunes is also important to human populations, which depend on them for storm and tsunami protection” says Sally Hacker, Associate Professor of Zoology at OSU. Hacker believes that Zarnetski’s research will be of immediate value to scientists and resource managers alike, since very little is currently known about dune grass invasions in the Pacific Northwest.
Markham First Year Student Award:
• Erin Kunisch (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, faculty advisor Markus Horning)
Holt Marine Education Fund Award:
• Christine Smith (Department of Science & Mathematics Education – MS, faculty advisor Shawn Rowe): Exhibit Redesign Using a collaboration of Ideas from the Local Community
Walter G. Jones Fisheries Development Award:
• Joo Dong Park (Food Science and Technology – PhD, faculty advisor Jae W. Park): Utilization of Pacific sardines for food applications by recovering functional proteins.
Cecil and Martha MacGregor Scholarship in Marine Science:
• Tricia Ratliff (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife)
Mamie Markham Research Award:
• Pamela Archer (Marine Resource Management Program – MSc, faculty advisors Jessica Miller & Tony D’Andrea): Re-establishment of the native Olympia Oyster, Ostrea Concchaphila, in Netarts Bay, Oregon.
• Katelyn Cassidy (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – MSc, faculty advisors Chris Langdon & Brett Dumbauld): Age determination and assessment of Neotrypaea californiensis using extractable lipofuscin as an age biomarker.
• Dafne Eerkes-Medrano (Department of Zoology – PhD, faculty advisors Bruce Menge & Jane Lubchenco): The influence of coastal productivity and hypoxia on larval condition and recruitment of barnacles and mussels.
• Donald Hawkyard (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – MSc, faculty advisor Chris Langdon): Development and analysis of a novel microparticle type (Wax spray beads) for use in marine and freshwater larviculture.
• Paul Lang (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – PhD, faculty advisors Chris Langdon & Mark Camara): Can Gene Expression Predict performance of Farmed Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas Families?
• Marisa Litz (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – MSc, faculty advisors Selina Heppell, Bob Emmett & Ric Brodeur): Analysis of total lipid content and fatty acid signatures for forage fish in the northeastern Pacific.
• Alena Pribyl (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – PhD, faculty advisors Steve Parker & Carl Schreck): Recovery from Catastrophic Decompression in Marine Rockfish (Sebastes spp.).
• Wade D. Smith (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – PhD, faculty advisor Selina Heppell): Nursery areas, natal origin and natural elemental signatures: implications for connectivity and conservation of shark and ray populations.
• Phoebe Zarnetski (Department of Zoology – PhD, faculty advisors Sally Hacker & Eric Seabloom): Nursery areas, natal origin and natural elemental signatures: implications for connectivity and conservation of shark and ray populations.
Lylian Brucefield Reynolds Scholarship:
• Mattias Johansson (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – PhD, faculty advisor: Michael Banks)
Bill Wick Marine Fisheries Award:
• Mattias Johansson (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife – PhD, faculty advisor Michale Banks): Examining olfactory and pheromone receptor gene sequence and expression differences in closely related species of rockfishes.
• Amanda M. Kaltenberg (College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences – PhD, faculty advisors Kelly Benoit-Bird & Doug Biggs -Texas A&M): Address the relationship between the wind-driven upwelling plume and small pelagic schooling fish in the northern California Current System.