About kightp

Pat Kight is the web and digital media specialist for Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University.

Welcome 2016 Summer Scholars!

Summer Scholars 2016

Summer Scholars, 2016

Today we kicked off our 2016 Summer Scholars season with an orientation for the 10 undergraduates who will be spending their summer working on research and public engagement projects with natural resource agencies on the Oregon coast: Angus Thies, Lexi Brewer, Skyler Elmstrom, Claire Mullaney, Erin Horkin,  Stephanie Ng, Collin Williams, Edward Kim, Justin Dalaha and Jessica Vaccare.

This is the largest class of Summer Scholars we’ve hosted to date, and we look forward to reading their posts about their experiences in our Sea Grant Scholars blog.

Learn more:

Deadline nears for Summer Scholars applicants

Oregon Sea Grant is accepting applications for our Summer Scholars program, which places qualified undergraduates with natural resource agencies and labs on the Oregon Coast, or with our program, for a summer of field work, research, policy development and/or public engagement work – including participation in this blog. The application deadline is Feb. 22.

The program is open to any undergraduate student who will have completed the equivalent of two years of full time study by June 13, 2016 and who is currently enrolled in any U.S. college or university (or who will have graduated during the 2015-2016 academic year). Students from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

For complete information about how to apply, visit our Website.

Scholars update: Ian Heller (2010)

Summer Scholar at CERF2010 Summer Scholar Ian Heller presented a poster earlier this month at the Biennial meeting of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Foundation in Daytona Beach, FL.

Ian was co-author with Chelsea Woodworth (Clemson University, a US Environmental Protection Agency intern in 2011), Tedd Dewitt and David Young (EPA scientists who were Ian’s mentors during his Summer Scholars assignment).

The poster, “Nekton Species Distribution Within and Among Four Oregon Estuaries,” presented a first look at field data collected as part of a large project to measure how different different estuarine wetland habitats contribute to the production of Dungeness crabs and fishes. Ian helped collect and analyze the data as an Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar in 2010 and returned to the project as an EPA intern this summer. In the process, he learned different hypotheses about how habitat might affect the distribution of crabs and fishes, trawled  for nekton, and synthesized the data into the results presented in the poster.

At the CERF meeting, Ian had a chance to present the research and field questions from scientists and students. “I was able to see the scientific method to the end, and it was satisfying to see a product come out of my summer work,” he wrote.

Besides flying to exotic places to talk about crabs, Ian is back at Vassar College working on his senior thesis on sea anemone development and fretting about life post-graduation. He hopes to spend the next year assisting with biological research and applying to graduate schools. Perhaps he’ll once again find himself on the Oregon Coast!

Summer Scholar’s work displayed at NOAA open house

Joanne Choi's OLY-ROCs project on display at NOAA open houseCongratulations to Summer Scholar Joanne Choi, whose poster on her OLY-ROCS project was prominently featured in this weekend’s open house at the new NOAA Marine Operations Center in Newport!

Joanne’s work on a new kind of artificial breeding structure for oysters was front and center at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve exhibit, alongside exhibits from NOAA units ranging from the National Weather Service to National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dr. Steve Rumrill, South Slough research coordinator, had great things to say about Joanne and her work this summer. He’s an enthusiastic supporter of the Sea Grant Summer Scholars program, and hopes to host additional undergrads in the future.

Several thousand people toured the exhibit area over two days as part of the weekend’s official dedication/welcoming/open house for NOAA’s newest, most state-of-the-art marine operations center, which will be home port for the agency’s Pacific research fleet.

Knauss Fellows meet with Dr. Lubchenco

Our Summer Scholars are our most prolific bloggers, but other Sea Grant scholars are having busy summers, too. The Knauss Fellows Class of 2011 recently took part in a “NOAA 101” briefing and had a chance to meet Dr. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator (and a former Oregon State University marine zoologist):

Knauss Fellow Brett Hartl with Dr. Jane Lubchenco

(Oregon Sea Grant Knauss Fellow Brett Hartl with Dr. Lubchenco. Brett is spending his fellowship providing marine policy analysis and support for Democratic members of the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of NOAA)

Read more about the Knauss Fellowship program

Come see us at DaVinci Days!

Setting up for DaVinci Days

Setting up for DaVinci Days

The Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars are on campus this weekend for their mid-summer check-in, a tour of OSU’s Hinsdale Wave Research Center, and to help staff the Sea Grant booth at DaVinci Days, Corvallis’ annual festival of the arts and sciences.

If you’re in Corvallis this weekend, you can find us in the “Discover OSU” area on the lower campus just off 14th Street. Drop by for information, activities, games – and giveaways!

See more photos of today’s activities on the Oregon Sea Grant Flickr gallery.

Welcome our 2011 Summer Scholars

A new class of Sea Grant Summer Scholars arrived on campus this week for orientation, and are now scattered to their host departments and agencies on the coast and at OSU. They are:

  • Shealyn Friedrich is a student at Willamette University in Salem, OR, who will be working on developing a website for the OSU Marine Council under the guidance of the Sea Grant program office at OSU.
  • AnnaRose Adams, an Oregon State University student, returning for her second year in the Summer Scholars program, assigned to work on a Coastal Marine Spatial Planning workshop with the Sea Grant program office.
  • Diego Martin-Perez, a student at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, LA, working at the Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Visitor Center in Newport under the tutelage of public education specialist Bill Hanshumaker.
  • Betty Mujica, of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, working with veterinarian Tim Miller-Morgan and Extension water quality specialist Rob Emanuel at the HMSC Visitor Center.
  • Lauren Dimock, a Willamette University student assigned to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s marine resource program at the HMSC.
  • Nicole Matthias, of Michigan Technological University, also assigned to the ODFW’s marine resource program.
  • Margaretmary Gilroy, of College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, assigned to the US Environmental Protection Agency lab at the HMSC
  • Sara Duncan, of Hawai’i Pacific University in Honolulu, assigned to EPA extension, where she will be working under the guidance of Ted DeWitt on a project to study the nutrient removal of flora in the Yaquina Resevoir
  • Joanne Choi, of Yale University, who will be working with the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Coos Bay under the guidance of the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.

We hope all nine of this year’s Summer Scholars will find time to blog about their experiences.

Welcome …

… to our new group blog for the Oregon Sea Grant Scholars.Check out the “About us” page for more information about our fellowship and internship program for graduate and undergraduate students.

Our first group of bloggers are also the first participants in our new Summer Scholars program for undergraduates. Here are a few photos from their June 14 orientation session at Oregon State University (hover your mouse over each photo for a description):

Meeting graduate assistants at OSU Fish Disease Lab
Dr. Jerri Bartholomew explains fish disease lab's work
Visiting the Hinsdale Wave Research Lab

OSU Challenge Course
Learning cooperation at the Challenge Course
Crossing the bridge

Photos by Pat Kight, Oregon Sea Grant