Alumni Perspectives

Aboard the ship, Erica focused on still photography and writing, and Jordan concentrated on filming plastic and the crew at work. Climbing into a patched-up old inflatable dinghy that was launched from the main vessel, Erica and Jordan were set adrift for a half-hour or so. They were entrusted with a waterproof camera bag containing thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and dealt with setbacks — such as a slow leak that sprayed water everywhere, drenching them.

Erica did more than sharpen her journalism skills on the ocean voyage, however.

“The crew fully incorporated me into sailing tasks, which I really appreciated,” she says. “It was incredible learning how to sail and to do it correctly. I owe most of what I learned to the sailing partner assigned to me — Rasmus Hytting.”

Hytting, or “Ras” as Erica now refers to him, is a Danish carpenter and boat builder with more than three decades of sailing experience. While Hytting was considered to be a stern taskmaster and judge of his crewmembers’ sailing techniques, Erica’s quickness to learn garnered his respect, laying the foundation for a friendship they shared during the six weeks they spent together.

The sea can be a harsh environment for someone embarking on an extended maiden ocean voyage. “I truly felt comfortable on the ship despite the fact it was small and heaved around by huge waves. Spending any time in the cockpit usually meant you would get drenched by either waves or rain,” Erica says. “Admittedly, life on board wasn’t easy — for instance, our toilet was a bucket and we could only wash sparingly with fresh water — but I enjoyed the simplicity and challenges of being a sailor enormously because it made me appreciate what we did have on the ship —camaraderie and friendship.”

Erica adds that even when the ship experienced an engine malfunction and a snapped rudder en route to Hawaii, she never felt that she was in danger because she trusted the crew completely.

Even before this ocean assignment, Erica’s writing has appeared in prestigious publications such as The  Atlantic and  Scientific American. A sampling of her stories in those publications follows.

• More Plastic, Fewer Oysters? ( National Geographic)
• The ‘Curious’ Robots Searching for the Ocean’s Secrets ( Atlantic)
• Sea Unworthy: A Personal Journey into the Pacific Garbage Patch ( Scientific American)

Her work has not gone unnoticed. None other than environmentalist humanitarian movie star Leonardo DeCaprio shared her  Scientific American plastics story on his Facebook page; that led to a huge spike in readers and visitors to her own web site. Erica is eagerly bringing her message to the community, which has led to a  speaking tour.

Although Erica is largely responsible for who she has become, she recognizes that every aspiring trailblazer needs assistance from an established professional, and Erica is grateful for the connections and opportunities Safina gave her.

“Most of us remember someone who took us under their wing, believed in us, let us think we could succeed,” says Safina. “We may have  told them how much they meant to us. But the only way to  show it is to be like them to someone.”

Mentorships are relationships after all, and the mentee must also recognize their value.

“I recommend that every young person find a mentor,” says Erica. “Carl is a great mentor to me not only because he is knowledgeable about the field I work in, but because he is a patient teacher who cares about my success. Find someone who is willing to both support and challenge you and you will be amazed by how much you grow personally and professionally.”

Erica’s life voyage could have derailed her dreams but her persistent optimism kept them afloat.   “Life is full of suffering but if we work at righting our wrongs, I know it can also be full of beauty, love and happiness,” she says. “I’ve seen and experienced the worst and the best in life, and that’s helped me overcome new challenges that come my way.”

–Glenn Jochum

According to Danica Warns, “the Marine Conservation and Policy program is a very unique and fast-track graduate program that helped launch my career in environmental conservation.”   She appreciated the flexibility to select the classes she wanted to take and how she could “design (her) capstone project to match (her) career goals” that allowed her “to tailor the program to get the most out of my degree.” As she knew she was interested in a career in environmental outreach, Danica chose to take several courses in the Alda Center for Communicating Science.  The classes “were so valuable and enhanced my communication skills greatly,” she says.

Danica highlights the benefits of the program:

If it weren’t for the flexibility of this program, it would have been difficult for me to meet my goals in such a short period of time. The strong background in current marine conservation issues and communication skills I learned put me in a competitive position for pursuing a career in environmental outreach.

She credits the MCP program for helping her get to her current position, working for the NYC Parks Department engaging volunteers in wetland restoration projects.

BY JOANNE MORICI

Christopher Martinez may be a marine biologist from California, but he didn’t grow up near the ocean. Visalia, his hometown, is a small farming city in the San Joaquin Valley. His family of migrant workers traveled the West picking crops. “Because of their hard work, I was able to pursue my dream,” said Christopher, who earned his PhD in 2014.

That dream was to study biology. Animals and insects always interested Christopher, but when he made the three-and-half-hour trip to the ocean, “I was fascinated by the diversity of ocean life.”

As an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Barbara, his passion for marine sciences solidified. Christopher became research diver certified and was listed as co-author of a study, published in 2011 in Marine Biology, for his research in French Polynesia.

When Christopher applied to the graduate program at Stony Brook, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) awarded him a Turner Fellowship.

The W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship helps qualified underrepresented graduate students seeking certain degrees. Since 1987, the Fellowship has graduated more than 400 degree recipients.

The Center for Inclusive Education (CIE), which provides Turner Fellowship funding, became Christopher’s second home. “The CIE offered me a support system and a sense of family,” he said. After losing outside funding, the CIE helped Christopher pay for flounder movement pattern research in Long Island bays.

Michael Frisk, associate professor in SoMAS and Christopher’s PhD advisor, helped him redirect his research. “Mike told me to design a project that truly reflected my academic interests,” said Christopher.

After studying geometric morphometrics with Distinguished Professor emeritus F. James Rohlf, Christopher pursued ecological morphology of skates and rays and spatial modeling of marine communities in the Northwest Atlantic with a grant Frisk helped him secure.

“Chris was a very bright, dedicated student,” said Frisk. “He read the literature across disciplines and developed and applied modeling methods to quantify fish communities.”

These skills helped Christopher develop his postdoctoral research proposal and earn dual fellowships with the American Museum of Natural History, where he will take advantage of the Museum’s very large fish collection.

Christopher credits much of his success to Stony Brook. “The overall level of research among faculty and graduate students at Stony Brook is really impressive,” said Christopher. “I’ve had many opportunities at Stony Brook because of its proximity to New York City, specifically the Museum of Natural History.”

Sarah Schaefer is currently the Program Coordinator for the Peconic Estuary Program (PEP). In this job she facilitates the Peconic Estuary watershed protection and restoration projects, monitoring and research. She also assists municipalities and not-for-profits to form partnerships, secure funding and plan and implement water quality improvement and habitat restoration projects. The PEP is a partnership comprised of stakeholders within the estuary. The program is responsible for creating and implementing a management plan to protect the estuary.

The Peconic Estuary is one of twenty-eight (28) estuaries in the National Estuary Program (NEP), administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) under the auspices of Sec. 320 of the Clean Water Act to protect and preserve nationally significant estuaries which are threatened by pollution, development, or overuse. The Peconic Estuary was accepted into the program as an “estuary of national significance” in 1992 after citizen groups formed in response to the Brown Tide algal bloom events in the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s. At that time, it became the 20th National Estuary Program in the country.

The Peconic Estuary is located between the North and South Forks of Long Island, and consists of over one-hundred (100) harbors, embayments and tributaries which span more than 125,000 acres of land and 158,000 acres of surface water.

Sarah offers the following advice to incoming students:

“Stay open to all possibilities, whether it be lab work, field work, research etc. All experiences will give you some skill that will be valuable down the road. Make the most out of whatever opportunities you are given and work hard. Communication skills and ArcGIS experience are valuable strengths- take advantage of the chances you get to learn and practice these skills.”

 Sarah believes that the Marine Conservation and Policy (MCP) Program prepares students for real world careers because you are provided experience in many different areas like environmental/marine policy, marine research, field work, communicating science. The program provides the experience to be competitive for marine conservation and policy programs. She says that “everyone in my graduating class had slightly different interests and the program gave everyone the freedom to pursue those interests.

Interviewed by MCP student Whitney Leigh

Brian holding a small adult white perch (Morone americana) collected in the Hudson River for his MS thesis research at Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

Throughout my (still ongoing) education and career in aquatic ecology, I have developed a strong interest in how human impacts such as climate change, harvest, and contaminants influence the ecology and evolution of fishes. My four years as a Marine Vertebrate Biology major at SoMAS from 2009 to 2013 were crucial in jump-starting these interests, most notably though opportunities to conduct undergraduate research. After gaining important experience in three different labs, I took on a more ambitious role during my last two years, working with Mike Frisk, Anne McElroy and Bob Cerrato on a collaborative study of six historically overfished winter flounder populations along an urbanization gradient in Long Island. This project was a formative experience, as it made me grapple with the complexity of how different populations respond to multiple human impacts in the real world.

After graduating from SoMAS, I completed an MS program at Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (part of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science) from 2013 to 2016, where I studied migration behavior and long-term abundance patterns in Hudson River white perch. Importantly, my previous experience at SoMAS gave me a firm background for this study, as I had already worked with white perch and familiarized myself with relevant laboratory techniques (especially working with fish otoliths) as an undergraduate. While I very much enjoyed doing research and taking classes as a student, I felt the need to take on a new type of role to become better-rounded, which led me to take my current job as chief scientist of the Juvenile Striped Bass Seine Survey at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, one of the longest-running aquatic monitoring programs on the United States east coast. This job, in addition to being a lot of fun, has allowed me to broaden my skills and experiences in a way that would not have been possible if I had stayed in school

Now, I am preparing to move on to the next step in my career, as I will be starting a PhD at Concordia University in Montreal this coming fall, with support from an internal fellowship and a Fulbright Award. My research will focus on how population characteristics and ecological feedbacks will promote or constrain adaptation to climate change across multiple populations of brook trout in Cape Race, Newfoundland. Such research will be crucial for informing the conservation and management of salmon, trout, charr, and other coldwater fish populations that will be threatened by climate change in the coming decades.

Former Marine Conservation and Policy Masters student Kenneth Lang (fall 2013) was recently selected for the prestigious John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. The competitive fellowship recruits students from 33 Sea Grant programs nationwide to complete a one year paid fellowship in either the legislative or executive branch of the U.S. government in Washington D.C. Ken’s placement in the program is with NOAA’s International Affairs Office where he will focus on research in Europe, Russia, and the Arctic beginning in February.

While in Stony Brook’s Marine Conservation and Policy program, Lang completed an internship with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters Programme, where he studied three dozen transboundary water environmental remediation projects. Lang felt that his Knauss placement was a perfect fit with the skills and knowledge he obtained during his time in the MCP program.

“My internship taught me a great deal, and the MCP program was the perfect leader into the Knauss fellowship,” said Lang. “You get experience in both science and policy in the MCP program.”

The Knauss Fellowship, which started nearly 30 years ago, provides an excellent opportunity for students interested in Marine Policy to kickstart their careers and obtain relevant, high-level experience in the nation’s capital. According to Professor Anne McElroy, former director of NY Sea Grant and current Graduate Program Director as SoMAS, “there is no better opportunity than the Knauss Fellowship for getting first-hand experience in how policy is made or establishing a professional network within the environmental management community.”

Lang, whose 2014 class includes the 1000th fellow to enter the program, has this advice to other MCP students aiming to follow his lead: “Graduate students hold a privileged status in society. Use that status,” says Lang, “You get where you want to go by talking to other people.”

Cassie Bauer received her BS and MS from SoMAS in 2009 and 2012 respectively. Her  thesis research involved the physical processes that contribute to localized, seasonal hypoxic conditions in the bottom waters of Smithtown Bay, Long Island Sound.

According to Cassie, “My thesis work gave me experience doing research in the Sound, understanding the Sound’s water quality issues, and developing relationships with researchers and environmental groups. This directly prepared me for a job as the Long Island Sound Study Coordinator”

Cassie works with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation as the Long Island Sound Study Coordinator. This is a bi-state partnership to restore and protect the Long Island Sound where her job responsibilities include co-chairing technical work groups, attending meetings, managing grants, collecting data on environmental indicators, tracking state activities, and writing reports, newsletters, and management plans. According to Cassie, “I also get to interact with many local environmental organizations and help out with various educational and outreach events, which I think is the most exciting aspect of my job.”

Her advice to incoming and current students is to “take advantage of the knowledgeable and friendly faculty and staff and the excellent resources SoMAS has to offer.”

In her current role as Fire Island National Seashore’s Public Affairs Specialist, Elizabeth manage press relations, digital media, and lead science communications efforts. She works closely with experts from all divisions within the National Park Service and with researchers and partners to develop communications products for a variety of audiences.

Elizabeth offers the following advice for incoming MCP students:

“Get experience. Shadow, volunteer, intern, or work at an organization or in a position that interests you. There is no better way to find your way. Through these experiences you are bound to meet someone who can help connect you to the next best step in your career. So be open to every opportunity that comes your way. You never know where it may lead you!”

Elizabeth says that she “was fortunate enough to be involved in a student training program with the National Park Service during my time at SoMAS.” While managing my studies and a full-time job was not easy, the two programs prepared her well for the work she does now.

Interviewed by MCP student Whitney Leigh

Jake LaBelle, a graduate of the Marine Conservation and Policy (MCP) Master’s program, has found career success at the New York Seascape.

The New York Seascape, a program operated through the Wildlife Conservation Society, seeks to protect habitat and species that rely on New York’s coastal waters. They use a combination of research, education, and policy to achieve this goal. LaBelle works as research coordinator through New York Seascape, a position that helps him engage in his true passion: sharks.

“Getting to live in New York and do fieldwork with sharks is pretty incredible,” says Labelle, “I’ve always loved sharks.”

LaBelle got involved with New York Seascape by doing an internship with them during his time working on his MCP degree. He got involved in more and more projects until he became indispensable to the organization, at which point he was offered a job.

Even before that, LaBelle spent time working with sharks. Prior to attending Stony Brook University, he volunteered at the Bimini Biological Field Station. The Field Station gathers data on sharks in the Bahamas, which is then utilized by universities and professors, including SoMAS professor Dr. Demian Chapman, who does genetic studies on the samples gathered there.

These experiences were key for LaBelle, who came from non-scientific background. His undergraduate degree was in International Affairs. A lot of his success came from talking to people involved in the field, who knew some way he could get involved. This included his work in Bimini, and other places as well.

“I always loved aquariums and marine biology, and started by volunteering at the National Zoo,” states LaBelle.

Currently, LaBelle is working on research on Sand Tiger and Shortfin Mako sharks in the Great South Bay. By tracking these sharks, he is hoping to get more information to construct maps of essential habitat for these species. LaBelle feels that GIS courses taken as an MCP student were indispensable to this work, and that these and other experiences as an MCP student will continue to be useful in his chosen career path.

Laura Picariello, former MCP student, is busy pursuing a career in Louisiana with the Gulf United for Lasting Fisheries, part of the Audubon Nature Institute. As a Research Assistant working with a wide variety of audiences, she says the Marine Conservation and Policy program really helped her find her career.

“You deal with such a wide range of issues in the program,” says Picariello, “it’s not so specialized.”

The fact that the program focuses not only on science coursework, but communication, environmental law, and policy creates an environment where students can about a vast amount of topics in a short amount of time. This leaves them better prepared to find a career, maybe not even one they had expected.

“This opportunity came up. It was not the specific thing I was looking for,” state Picariello, “But I’m thrilled to be here. I’m loving where I’m at, working in the transition between fisheries and management.”

Picariello was traditionally trained as a musician, but found that she couldn’t live away from the ocean. She choose the Marine Conservation and Policy program in order to change her career pathway and improve her job satisfaction. What other advice does she have for current or prospective students wishing to do the same?

“We all had our ideas about where we wanted to go,” she says, “but don’t limit yourself in where you want to go. Being open leads you to interesting places.”

Christopher Lang, a graduate of the Marine Conservation and Policy (MCP) Master’s Program, is using his degree to make a difference in environmental policy.

Lang, who graduated from the MCP program in 2012, works as a Legislative Fellow in the New York Senate. The prestigious Legislative Fellowship Program, which accepts graduate students from a variety of programs, pairs students with New York Senators to do legislative research and write policy. Lang is working with Senator Catharine Young whose work in agriculture and environmental policy is a good match for Lang’s interests and abilities.

Lang hopes to focus on aquaculture policy during his time in the New York Senate, and attributes much of his professional success to the MCP program and to the courses he took during his time at Stony Brook University.

“I definitely wouldn’t be in a position to get this job without the MCP program,” says Lang.

The MCP program allows students to tailor their degree, offering courses in environmental law and policy, science communication, and other more traditional science-based conservation classes. After students complete their coursework, they complete a capstone project or internship, where they apply the skills developed in classes to real-life scenarios in the workplace. Lang chose to participate in an internship with the Mystic Aquarium as an educator, a position that gave him some extra experience in communication. “I never dreamed this was where it would take me. Use the diversity of the program to your advantage,” Lang advises current and prospective students.

Lang certainly has done that. Having received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Providence College, he took Environmental Law classes as an MCP student, which helped him understand and become familiar with court and law documents. However, Lang believes the science communication courses were the most beneficial for him.

“Those courses can prepare you for anything. I had a lot of fun in my improvisation course, and learned so much as well,” states Lang.

Looking forward, Lang plans to use the connections and skills he gains as a Legislative Fellow to his advantage in future work with environmental policy, either in a state or federal agency or in a private firm.

John Holden aboard a lobster boat in Long Island Sound, bespattered with mud but still smiling.

John transferred to Stony Brook-Southampton campus for the fall 2007 semester as a Marine Science major and graduated in spring 2011 with a Bachelor of Science degree. As an undergraduate, he took a suite of marine-related courses – all of Physical, Biological, and Coastal Oceanography, as well as Long Island Marine Habitats and Experimental Marine Biology. These experiential classes gave John the opportunity to get out on the water and gain practical experience to compliment what he was learning in the traditional classroom setting.

While a student, John also became involved in a number of research projects. In 2010, he was an intern in Dr. Chris Gobler’s lab at Southampton working on mesocosm experiments pertaining to the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Project (ShiRP). During that summer, he also participated on the Southampton Blue Oyster Project (S-BOP), where he worked for Drs. Kurt Bretsch and Joe Warren monitoring oyster growth and water quality conditions at several locations within the Shinnecock and Peconic Bays. After graduation, he continued working as a technician on the ShiRP project, as well as crewing on the research vessels out of the SoMAS Southampton Marine Station and on SoMAS’s R/V Seawolf out of Port Jefferson.

John is currently working for the Marine Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County as a fisheries technician. He is working on two different projects. John works on the lobster pot retrieval project in Long Island Sound, working with local fishermen to retrieve derelict lobster pots. The second project involves testing new fishing gear aimed at reducing by-catch. He has worked on ocean trawlers testing out new gear for the summer flounder fishery aimed at reducing sea turtle by-catch, as well as new gear for the squid fishery.

John reflects on his time at SoMAS: “From SoMAS I have learned the importance of working well with others as a team, seeing something all the way through, to finish what is started, and to do a thorough job not just for myself but for others as well.”

Morgan Gelinas (MS, 2011) studied ship wakes in the Venice Lagoon, Italy.  Here, very large ships routinely navigate a deep dredged channel cut through a shallow lagoon.  The wakes they create propagate over the  adjacent shoals for long distances, resuspending sediment as they go.  Morgan described these wakes as Bernoulli wa ves, or non-linear N-waves, usin g the same equations that govern the propagation of tsunamis over the deep-ocean basins (Gelinas, M, H. Bokuniewicz, J. Rapaglia, and K.M.M. Lwiza, 2013. Sediment Resuspension by Ship Wakes in the Venice Lagoon Journal of Coastal Research: Volume 29, Issue 1: 8-17. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-11-00213.1 ).

She is now a scientist specializing in marine geology and hydrodynamic processes working for EA Engineering, Science and Technology, Inc.  EA has offices from Guam to Maryland and Morgan is leading many of their field efforts.  Her professional duties include such a diverse array of studies such as sediment testing, ocean permitting, marine bathymetric surveys, aquatic site characterizations, interpreting ecotoxicological and bioaccumulation/tissue testing and analysis. Morgan is currently working on a site characterization study in Duluth, MN in the St. Louis River/Lake Superior area, but she has been in most of the Great Lakes in the past two summers on EPA projects. She routinely pilots the boat for bathymetric work or coring all over in the Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico and greater NYC area.

Graduates from the Marine Conservation and Policy Program are prepared for a variety of careers, including jobs in the government, non-profit, and private sectors. One recent MCP graduate, Hazel Wodehouse, is training the next generation of ocean scientists at Suffolk Community College on Long Island.

Since graduating from the MCP program, Wodehouse has been teaching courses such as Environmental Issues and Introduction to Oceanography as an adjunct professor.  Wodehouse finds that after taking her courses, her students have a deeper connection with the environment and the marine habitats that surround them. She described a particular experience about a year ago when she took students to see a whale necropsy.

“I took all of my classes to see the whale that day,” recalled Wodehouse. “One of my students told me later that seeing the whale was the highlight of their educational career.”

Wodehouse attributes the MCP program for helping her being successful in her career. Courses required by the program in communicating science were among her favorite, and got her interested in teaching. The one-year program allowed her to get a quality education in a short amount of time. What is her advice to the current class?

“Take advantage of as many opportunities as you can. Even if you don’t initially think you’ll be interested in something, you might surprise yourself,” says Wodehouse.

KESTREL PEREZ graduated in 2011 with her PhD in marine and atmospheric sciences. Under the advisement of Professor Stephan Munch, Kestrel’s dissertation examined the evolution of size in fish and evaluated the strength of natural selection and the presence of prolonged trade-offs from an early period of fast growth to better understand the evolution of size. She joined the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in 2005 as a scholar in the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, and is a recipient of the Dr. W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship. Upon completing her PhD, Kestrel went on to a postdoctoral position at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Marine Sciences.

Kestrel is an assistant professor of biology at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she is teaching courses in marine biology and evolution and ecology, and mentoring undergrad researchers. Her research centers on marine biology. Specifically, she focuses on fish and invertebrate evolutionary ecology, the study of life history traits and maternal investments, and how variation in these areas influences larval fitness and recruitment.

Katie Kennedy is a licensed attorney in Pennsylvania, who became Associate Director of Stewardship for Lehigh University in 2014. Prior to graduating cum laude from the Appalachian School of Law in 2013, Katie obtained her BA in SoMAS’ Environmental Studies program focusing on Marine Biology.   While at Stony Brook she worked as a marine mammal trainer intern at Atlantis Marine World and conducted research in Professor Gordon Taylor’s marine microbiology lab. According to Katie “Stony Brook provided me with a truly transformative experience.”

Katie admits that while she’s not in a traditional career associated with marine science, as an attorney, she uses many transferable skills she developed at SoMAS. “I learned to think critically. I also learned how to digest vast amounts of information and turn that information into something worthwhile. I also learned how to apply myself and rise above grand challenges. SoMAS taught me that I had a lot of grit. I am an attorney who is working for an institution of higher education and I use those critical thinking skills in many other rewarding ways!”

Katie’s advice for current students in SoMAS are to meet with your professors outside of class, find a good physical space for studying, conduct research that you are passionate about and take advantage of the SoMAS advisers expertise.

Tom Di Liberto grew up on Long Island and has been fascinated by the weather since he was a young child. At SoMAS, Tom studied under professor Brian Colle of the Institute for Terrerstrial and Planetary Atmospheres (ITPA) and worked with the School’s Storm Surge Research Group. His thesis dealt with storm surges affecting the New York metropolitan region. After earning his Masters degree in Atmospheric Science/Meteorology in 2009, he joined the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he works as a meteorologist forecasting the weather for Africa, Central America, Hispaniola, and Central Asia with a focus on weather hazards that could affect food security. In addition, Tom conducts research on the use of satellite-derived rainfall estimates in these regions. His research group’s studies took on a whole new level of importance during the past year due to Super Storm Sandy.  In 2013, Tom won the “America’s Science Idol” competition.

The “America’s Science Idol” competition was sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Office of Legislative and Public Affairs,  Discover Magazine, Popular Science and the Point of Inquiry Podcast. Patterned a bit after “American Idol”, the fun and engaging workshop was designed to help scientists and engineers communicate with non-technical colleagues and audiences.  In winning, Tom brought home some nice loot, viz.: 1-year subscriptions to  Discover and  Popular Science; a live guest appearance on the Point of Inquiry podcast and the  Discover DVD, as well as a variety of opportunities to visit and link with science communication groups around the country.

Helen Cheng was the first recipient of the Stony Brook Mote Marine Laboratory Internship.  She graduated with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Marine Sciences in 2009.  She is now at the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (SRIJB).  A recent spotlight highlighted her background

From Spotlight on Helen Cheng at the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay

The Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (SRIJB) and New York Sea Grant are happy to announce the arrival of Helen Cheng as the Specialist for the New York Sea Grant’s Jamaica Bay Coastal Resilience. Helen will be designing outreach programs to support community engagement and research efforts to enhance resilience for the communities within the Jamaica Bay Watershed.

“Urban areas are getting more attention, especially since the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy,” Cheng said. “Resilience is a priority across the national network of Sea Grant programs, and Jamaica Bay is internationally important setting for the issue.”

Cheng comes to SRJIB from a yearlong stint as a John D. Knauss 2015 Marine Policy Fellow at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea Grant, a highly competitive fellowship program among the nation’s highest qualified graduate students.  She was the Coastal Communities Specialist working in the National Sea Grant Office in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she synthesized Sea Grant Network research and extension activities surrounding coastal community sustainable development, hazard resilience, and climate change adaptation. She was on the NOAA Coastal Hazards Resilience Workshop Planning and Support team, and assessed institutional and network research portfolios from the 33 programs of the Sea Grant Network to help identify priorities of the National Sea Grant College Program.

Helen was selected a Knauss Fellow from the New Hampshire Sea Grant program. At the University of New Hampshire she earned her M.S. in Zoology with her research on horseshoe crabs. In New England, she also worked with lobsters and scallops, was a UNH teaching assistant, and a naturalist at the nearby Seacoast Science Center. Helen earned her B.S. in Biology from Stony Brook University in 2009 where she was selected for the first-ever Stony Brook Mote Marine Laboratory internship.

David Novak is the Director of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland where he oversees national forecasts for heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hazardous weather. He received a PhD from SoMAS where his research involved numerical models to understand hazardous weather conditions and predict their occurrence.

David’s interest in weather has been life-long. “Growing up in the extremes of Minnesota, I’ve been fascinated with the weather, and in particular, snowstorms.”  His dissertation work was an extension of this passion, where he studied localized heavy snowfall events, also known as mesoscale snowbands.

According to David, while at SoMAS he “learned to consider alternative viewpoints. Marine scientists, climate scientists, and meteorologists may think differently, but sharing those diverse views leads to a better solution. Appreciating and leveraging the diversity of viewpoints is critical to my job today.”

David was pushed to “think even bigger, work even harder, and achieve even more” at SOMAS. His advice for students is to seize opportunities that take us out the our comfort zones and expand our thinking.

David has developed a fulfilling career that combines his interests in hazardous weather, his passion for helping others and applies the technical skills he developed at Stony Brook University. “I love being at the heart of the nation’s weather forecasting service and science. Whether it be an accurate forecast of a hurricane, winter storm, flood, or heat wave, I know the information we provide every day really does matter to people’s lives. I love being at the center of these advances, and in a position to influence the direction of our service, while at the same time learning from the best talent in the nation.”

From “ For Carolyn Hall ’09, Mixing Science and the Arts is a Thrilling Dance ” on Stony Brook News by Elliot Olshansky on April 15, 2019

Early on in her training as a dancer,  Carolyn Hall ’09 had to learn to be able to pivot quickly.

Who knew it would have such valuable application as a life skill?

Carolyn Hall ’09 leads workshops for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, part of a varied career in marine ecology and contemporary dance. (Photo Credit: Kelly AuCoin)

Hall, who holds an MS in Marine Science from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), conducts her own historical marine ecology research, has been part of a team studying the ecosystem of the Gulf of Maine under Adrian Jordaan of the University of Massachusetts, works as the research assistant and fact-checker to  New York Times best-selling author Paul Greenberg, and leads workshops for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook. As if that weren’t enough, she continues to perform as a contemporary dancer, having recently completed a residency on Governors Island with Works on Water and performed in a  New York Times-featured piece by choreographer Carrie Ahern. A winner of the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for performance in 2002, she also serves on the boards of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance (iLAND) and Culture Push.

Hall recently took a few moments to breathe at her home in Brooklyn – where she lives with her husband, actor Kelly AuCoin (best known as “Dollar” Bill Stearn on  Billions and Pastor Tim on  The Americans) – and discuss her multifaceted career.

The best place to start is probably your work with the Alda Center. Tell us a bit about the kinds of programs you run and what you’re doing.

This is my fourth year teaching at the Alda Center, and officially, I’m a message design or “Distilling Your Message” instructor. I work with graduate students, post-graduates, and some professors, taking them through a five-week course where they work on talking about their science and their research in a way that’s for audiences who aren’t academic, and aren’t in their specialized field. It’s really fun, actually. We work on one-minute pitches or talks, conversations, storytelling, get them in front of a camera to be interviewed by journalists, and we do writing exercises, too. It’s pretty intense, but it’s only once a week. I also work with the Alda Center and go on the road to various organizations and institutions – other academic institutions, or NASA and other government institutions – and work with professionals and faculty members and undergraduates and graduates, and we do the same thing, but we team teach with acting improvisation instructors as well.

And because the Alda Method ^TM  is based on Alan Alda’s experience as an actor and as host of  Scientific American Frontiers , does it help that you approach this with an arts background of your own?

That’s certainly what drew me to it. I thought, “I have both halves!” I wasn’t trained in acting improvisation, but in dance improvisation; I’ve done a lot, and still do. So yes, I think having a performance background made me interested in communicating my research differently. I wanted to be able to talk to the random people who came up while I was in the field, asking what I was doing. I wanted to be able to explain it to them. I wanted that audience to have access to what I was doing, because I was excited about it. It felt very connected to being a dancer, being a performer, and wanting your audience to come along with you. Even though dance doesn’t necessarily use verbal language, there’s a desire to have the audience physically or tangibly follow you and have some sort of interpretation of it that you’ve helped communicate to them.

Obviously, you had already been here for your graduate degree, but what was your path from graduating and doing the research that you’ve been working on to coming back here to work with the Alda Center?

Christine O’Connell was one of the designing founders who worked with Alan for the Alda Center. We were colleagues at SoMAS and friends already, and she was going through the initial sessions with Alan when he was testing out the improv and “Distilling the Message” exercises in tandem. For years, she was saying, “You should do this, you should do this, you should do this. You’re a scientist and a dancer, a scientist and an artist.” I finally found myself with a window of time where I said, “I could go explore and train in this.” As soon as I did, it felt like something I had to do.

You mentioned the difference between improvising as a dancer and as an actor. Your husband is something of an “in-house consultant,” so to speak, when it comes to acting. Are there things you work on where you find you want an actor’s perspective and you consult Kelly?

Kelly does know the kind of acting exercises we use – he’s done them at one point or another – but honestly, I consult the improv instructors who are part of the Alda Center, because they know how we’re applying it to working with scientists and working in communication beyond acting.

Although, Kelly finds it all really fascinating, and I do use him as a sounding board when I’m trying to get some of my scientific concepts out to a more general audience. I try things out on him and he’ll say, “Ah, I don’t know if I quite understand that.”

Working in the Alda Center, and being married to a prominent actor yourself, have you ever had the opportunity to bring them together?

Because I only work with the Alda Center part-time, I haven’t had that many interactions with Alan, but I did bring Kelly to a mixer in New York City, and I got to introduce them. There were a lot of people around, but they had a nice warm, brief chat about acting. Alan is one of those spectacular actors that Kelly has watched and admired since he was a child – so meeting him was meeting one of those icons of the acting world. It was really fun for them to meet, and I was just standing there beaming at the fact that this was happening, because Kelly was really excited to meet him, and Alan was very warm. He’s a very nice and approachable person, and they definitely connected over acting and the theatre world.

At the Alda Center, you bring your arts background into science, but you also have this other component to your career, where you bring your science background into the arts. That seems like a very different process. How does it work?

It’s different with each organization and each project. I think that the artist brain and the science brain work very similarly. There’s experimentation, there’s failure, and there are many trials. There’s an innate curiosity in your own practice or research, and also in the world around you, whether it’s a specific microscopic world, or a world of movement, or a world of sculpture, or whatever the art may be. The practices of being a scientist and being an artist are not so dissimilar, and what’s interesting is that when approaching a scientific topic from an artist’s point of view, there’s a different way of questioning, a way of representing the topic that, to me, is rather freeing: “What does it feel like?” That gives a different lens of looking at the science. So, you might start digging into deeper details of the science from an angle you didn’t expect, which is fascinating.

You talked a little bit about the process that brought you to the Alda Center. Can you tell us a bit more about the journey that led you to this amazingly varied career?

I grew up in Los Angeles, and although I wasn’t right on the coast, I loved going to the beach and I loved tide pools. So, I’d say that tide pools were my first fascination having to do with marine life and the marine environment, but I didn’t think I was going to pursue that at a young age. When I went to Oberlin College as an undergraduate, I was more interested in human physiology. I was already a dancer, and ran track, and they fit very nicely hand in hand, and so my degree was in biology with a focus on human physiology. Then, because it’s easier to pursue a career in dance when you’re young than when you’re older, I did work in physical therapy for a number of years, but I was becoming a professional dancer, in LA first, and then in New York.

After ten years of that, I was missing digging into the science side of my brain, and I spoke to professors at UC Santa Cruz, because their marine biology program was in my mind from high school as the place to go. One of them said, “You know, there’s a really good marine science program in New York.” I said, “Really?” They said, “Yeah, at Stony Brook.” I had not heard of it, but that’s because on the East Coast, I wasn’t exploring that as a real option.

I went out to Stony Brook and took a couple of upper-level undergraduate marine science courses at SoMAS, and I loved them both for very different reasons, and I thought, “this is what I’m going to do.” However, I still felt like I needed a little more exposure, so I did an internship at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla. That was the first place where I thought, “This is what being in the field is. This is what being among the public doing marine research is. This is what a full-time commitment to research that’s on computers, that’s on equipment, that’s talking to your colleagues, in the field, on a boat, is about,” and I was hooked, no pun intended. When I applied for grad school and hoped to get in, I wrote about that internship experience, and realized that sort of public interaction with research was fascinating to me.

I thought I would stop dancing, and for the first semester of graduate school, I couldn’t dance, because it was so intense, and I’d been out of school for so long that my learning curve was super-steep. But then, the dancing side of my brain still needed to be attended to, so I do both.

Having been here as a grad student, gone out to do your research, and then come back to work with the Alda Center, are there things you appreciate about Stony Brook now that you didn’t necessarily see as a student?

I think what’s most impactful about teaching a course that sees scientific researchers from many departments at Stony Brook is realizing what a deep community of scientists and research and study there is at Stony Brook. Sometimes, there are misconceptions about state schools and what they can offer in terms of excellence in various departments. Some schools are known for business, or known for chemistry, but I feel like at Stony Brook, not only is there this incredible medical school – which I think we are known for – but the rigorous pursuit of all the different sciences that I see reflected in the graduate students and the postdocs, is really impressive, and I feel lucky that I get to talk to such a really great cross-section of them through this scientific communication class.

Obviously, there’s something that you bring to these students when you work with them in these communication classes. How much do you find yourself taking back with you in terms of learning about their research?

That’s the beauty of having the Alda Center at Stony Brook. Because I am working with these scientists, these engineers, these medical students, who are gaining expertise in these fields – and they’re learning how to talk about it – they have to break down what their research is. They are so skilled at saying what their work is academically. I don’t understand all the words or all the processes, but because I get to work with them on understanding it, so that someone  like me, who’s not in their field can understand it, I actually  can walk away with an understanding: “Wow, you’re really working on trying to understand why people with schizophrenia often hear voices. Where’s that coming from? If we can figure out where it’s coming from in the brain, then maybe we can find a way to reduce it or help control it better.” I can walk away with an understanding of what cutting-edge research these students and their labs and their professors are working on, and that’s exciting.

You talk about the two sides of your brain that need attention, the science side and the dance side. What would you say to current students who may have their own seemingly divergent passions about how you manage to serve both, indulge both, and use both in your career?

There are so many multidisciplinary folks out there now, or hybrids, and I think more and more collaborations between scientists and people in other disciplines are happening. I encourage students to entertain their hybrid interests, partly because it makes them relatable to more audiences, but I also think that it’s important to remember that as a scientist you have all these different sides of you that are equally rich.

How do you have a career that way? That’s a tricky thing. If you’re going to try to do what I do, I’m freelance  everything, but I have other friends who are full-time researchers and they create theatre pieces, solo shows, that aren’t about science…or maybe they are, but not necessarily. It is possible. You just have to figure out what your main goal is, what you want from each discipline. I think that’s the key. That’s the question to ask yourself, but it is possible.

Jae Lee received both her PhD and MS from SoMAS, graduating in 2008. For her master’s thesis, Jae looked at radiative transfer modeling with Professor Bob Cess to estimate the earth’s radiation balance. Her PhD conducted under the direction of  Professor Sultan Hameed focused on how the sun can influence Earth’s climate.

Jae recalls “Stony Brook offered her a very good education. I learned everything I should know for my job at Stony Brook.”

Jae is currently a research scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She is working on satellite mission for solar irradiance measurements and analyzing satellite data to determine solar variability and its impact on Earth’s climate.  She is also “interested in arctic environment changes related with recent Greenland Ice Sheet losses.”

Jae’s advice to SoMAS students is to “Work and work, enjoy, be yourself; opportunities will come.”

              Lynn Abramson has a forged a career path that began in marine science and now influences environmental policy on a national level. She was a Ph.D student at SoMAS from 2001 to 2007 working with Bob Aller and Cindy Lee on the biological carbon pump and related biogeochemical processes. Her dissertation focused on how mineral interactions  influenced the decomposition of sinking particulate organic matter, using pigments and amino acids as tracers.  She recalls knowing early in her time at SoMAS, that she wanted to apply her scientific knowledge in a way that could benefit others.

Upon  graduation, Lynn received the prestigious John Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant program.  Her one year fellowship morphed into more than five years of work on oceans, public lands, water resources, energy, and transportation issues when she joined the staff of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).  After leaving Senator Boxer’s staff Lynn joined the Clean Energy Initiative with The Pew Charitable Trusts  where she coordinates their Clean Energy Business Network, that informs and engages over 3,000 clean energy business leaders. At this non-profit, non-partisan organization, she currently conducts research and works on “federal policies to promote cleaner and more efficient sources of energy.

Lynn applies her scientific understanding of complex environmental problems to practical solutions that can be implemented by businesses across the nation. According to Lynn “having a strong foundation in science has given me a much deeper, more holistic understanding of the environmental issues I’ve worked on in my policy career. My Ph.D. work trained me in objective thinking—keeping an open mind and weighing conflicting information and perspectives before making a decision.” Lynn is an excellent example of how a rigorous education in the sciences can be applied to a career in environmental policy.

Lynn has some advice for current students looking towards their future careers. “Try to learn about the diverse range of work being done by the faculty and students there.  Take advantage of courses in other departments and opportunities to get involved in your broader community.” She also reminds us that “communication is key to success-in graduate school and later in your career.”

“Being in Stony Brook University gave me the opportunity to experience what it means to be a marine biologist and I am thankful I have been a part of MSRC. The Marine Sciences Research Center is full of faculty who are supportive and always willing to help. I will always remember as I was applying to graduate school, all the faculty who were willing to talk to me and give me advice even though I was never one of their students and they were not my assigned advisors. Having had a mentor like Bassem Allam has really helped me become who I am today. He was supportive, helpful, and taught me how to become a better scientist. With him as my mentor, I was able to do a URECA summer project, present a poster at the URECA poster presentation event, as well as learn numerous lab skills. As I continue my studies in marine science, I can only hope that one day I will become a professor who like Mary Scranton, is always willing to take time out to advise students, who like Bassem Allam, inspires students to pursue marine science and instills confidence in students to think for themselves, and like all the faculty at marine science, who always keep an open door and a willingness to help every student.”

“I was very happy with my decision to come to MSRC at Stony Brook for my Ph.D., and I would highly recommend MSRC to future students. One of the biggest assets of the department is its open and friendly atmosphere. Not only is it relatively easy to collaborate with other laboratories on site, but the majority of students socialize together creating a warm, welcoming environment, which is so important considering how much time one spends on campus and interacting with colleagues. Students who decide to attend MSRC are rewarded with a wonderful opportunity to develop their own research interests with excellent faculty, and, when one has spare time, students can easily drive or take the train into New York City or hang out at the many nearby beaches.”

Dianne Greenfield. Ph.D. 2002
Research Assistant Professor
University of South Carolina & South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources

“I highly recommend Stony Brook and the Marine Sciences Research Center to prospective students. The faculty here are not only first-rate researchers; they sincerely care about seeing graduate students achieve their career goals in science. Students come to the MSRC from a variety of backgrounds and with a broad range of interests. This diversity is on of the MSRC’s greatest strengths. Students can pursue their interests in all areas of oceanographic research, and have the opportunity to participate in and design projects in locations ranging from the Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean. Living near the water is an added plus. While some students rely on the sound as a study site, others are happy to go kayaking, swimming, sailing, and fishing there when they are not in the lab.”

Anitra Ingalls, Ph.D. 2002
Assistant Professor,
University of Washington