November 7, 2008
Diana Humple Wins Fourth Switzer by SSU Biology Students
Biology graduate student Diana Humple was awarded a Switzer Environmental Fellowship for 2008, the fourth Switzer award from Sonoma State's Department of Biology in the past eight years.
Humple works in the SSU DNA Analysis Facility to study the impacts of oil spills on Western Grebe populations. The Western Grebe is a sea bird species that is known to suffer severe mortality rates from oil spills on the Pacific Coast.
This prestigious fellowship provides funding, research, and additional training and networking opportunities for "individual leaders who will be driving positive environmental change."
The Switzer also supports projects that will have "measurable positive results on environmental quality for natural and human communities."
This award represents the fourth Switzer fellow from the Department of Biology at SSU in the past eight years. A review of last year's 22 Switzer fellows shows that the awardees were chosen from notable programs, such as Yale, Brown, UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, UC Santa Cruz and MIT.
"It appears that there is a developing record of sustained excellence here at SSU in this area of scholarship," stays Biology Professor Derek Gilman in the announcement of Humple’s fellowship.
Above is Humple at Agate Beach where the damage from the oil spill triggered by the collision of the Cosco Busan resulted in death and injury to thousands of sea birds along the Pacific Coast.
Biology Grad Student Megan Wood Awarded Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship for 2009
Biology graduate student Megan Wood has been awarded a Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship for 2009.
Her master's thesis research, the reproduction and dispersal of sea stars and mussels among coastal sites in Northern California, is supported by her Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellowship, another very prestigious fellowship award.
Part of the work for Wood’s thesis is to help inform of protected marine area placements now underway as part of California's Marine Life Protection Act Initiative process.
The Marine Policy Fellowship provides "a unique educational experience to students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources."
The program matches highly qualified graduate students with "hosts" in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid fellowship.
Over the last three years the awardees of Knauss Fellows were chosen from esteemed universities such as Yale, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, University of Washington, Duke, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia and University of Southern California.