The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences welcomes the entering graduate class of 2007, the first to come in under the new banner of SoMAS. Orientation was held on Monday, August 27th, where nineteen new faces were greeted warmly by faculty, staff and students.
This year’s class boasts a high proportion of students who have previously lived on Long Island, including two students who received their undergraduate diplomas from Stony Brook University. SoMAS Dean and Director David Conover remarked that both the unique opportunities SoMAS offers to student and the competitiveness of the program contribute to the retention of local students.
During orientation, the new class discussed their research interests, ranging from invasive species and marine diseases to paleoclimatology. A handful of these students were busy conducting research at SoMAS this past summer.
Dr. Anne McElroy, the Graduate Programs Director, emphasized that the ‘department is set up to encourage interdisciplinary research’ and students are encouraged to make full use out of what is offered to them at SoMAS and to take advantage of outside courses and research opportunities. “We are here to help you get through it,” she stressed. “This is a mutually supportive endeavor.”
Dr. Minghua Zhang, Director of the Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres, pointed out that this is a particularly exciting time to enter SoMAS. He noted that the school continues to grow and change in response to the increasing number of global environmental challenges being posed to scientists, such as finding solutions to and predicting the effects of climate change.
This six Ph.D. and thirteen new M.S. students spent some time meeting with current graduate students and having lunch with faculty members. A new facet of orientation this year is the development of a student-mentor program where advanced graduate students act as mentors for new students in their first year to help ease their transition into SoMAS. Mentors will be available throughout the year and students are encouraged to use this relationship to make their first year as successful and productive as possible.
