Here’s the February News and Press Wrap-Up from SoMAS!
Congratulations to Dr. Sharon Pochron, who has been promoted to Associate Professor of Practice at SoMAS!
In the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, SoMAS student athlete Jessica Salmon has established a new 100 meter breaststroke record for the Stony Brook Swimming and Diving program, beating the previous record of 1:04.77 set by Jessica Peters in 2011 with a new record of 1:04.12!
Alumni Updates
Marine Conservation and Policy Program alum Dan Garatea (MA, 2015) is serving as the NOAA Hydrographic Surveys Division’s Operations Branch acting contracting team lead through May. Dan joined the Operations Branch in 2019, after previously working as a fisheries observer in Alaska for several years and spending far too much time fishing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science, and a master’s in Marine Conservation and Policy from Stony Brook University, New York. He tries to spend as much time cycling, hiking, and traveling as possible.
Press Highlights
Yahoo: Stony Brook University Students Participate In IMPACTS Program
Times Beacon Record: SBU weather professors, students launch balloons during nor’easter
- Even as other Long Island residents were hunkered indoors, Stony Brook University Professors Brian Colle and Pavlos Kollias were teaming up with scientists from several institutions as a part of a three-year NASA-led study called IMPACTS, for The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms.
Times Beacon Record: Calling for action in the face of climate change events
- As climate events continue to cause substantial widespread loss, damage, and financial costs that fall heavier on developing nations, a new commentary in the inaugural issue of PLOS Climate by two researchers, including Stony Brook University’s Professor Kevin A. Reed, calls for developed nations to direct resources toward operationalizing extreme weather events and impact attribution.
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority: Governor Hochul Announces Key Offshore Wind Milestone as Contracts for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind Projects are Finalized
- Through a partnership between the State University of New York’s Farmingdale State College and Stony Brook University on Long Island, the training institute aims to advance offshore wind training programs and the educational infrastructure needed to establish a skilled workforce that can support the emerging national offshore wind industry.
Democratic Undergraduate: Gentoo Penguins Discovered On Antarctic Peninsula – Moving South As Ice Melts, Seas Warm
- “It’s may be a cliché at this point, but they’re the canary in the coal mine for climate change because they’re so closely tied to those sea ice conditions,” Heather Lynch, an Antarctic penguin expert at Stony Brook University in New York and the remote leader of the expedition, told Mongabay in a video interview.
Newsday: Hemptead cleanup plan aims to boost oyster population in Jamaica Bay
- Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a $10.4 million project in 2017, which he dubbed the largest clam and oyster restoration project in the country. The project included plans to add 179 million oysters and clams in Long Island Sound and along the South Shore, with involvement by the DEC, Stony Brook and Cornell universities.
New York Ag News: Virtual Meeting Feb. 17 for Long Island Sound Embayment Study
- The study is one of many ways New York State is working to safeguard Long Island’s water sources, which includes Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed expansion of the SUNY Stony Brook Center for Clean Water Technology Research to include improved septic and wastewater treatment systems to treat phosphorus and nitrogen and the creation of the Suffolk County Wastewater Management District.
The Revelator: North Atlantic Mako Sharks Are Endangered — Now What?
- MCP graduate Sydney Randall (’21) and Carl Safina published an article on conservation issues and actions (and lack of action) around North Atlantic Short-finned Mako Sharks
Free Republic: Worldwide wastewater analysis reveals rise of designer drugs during lockdowns
- ‘It’s extremely hard to track these new chemicals,’ comments Arjun Venkatesan from Stony Brook University, US, who works in wastewater-based epidemiology for public health monitoring.
Long Island Advance: Analyzing snow; leading wood and beach walks
- All these experiences focus on marine life and the ocean.” Sydney Randall has a bachelor’s in environmental studies from Skidmore College and is a grad student at Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.
Long Island Advance: A burnished legacy of environmental advocacy and student leadership
- Eventually, their forays led to discussing issues, and Cooley would become co-founder of the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967 with Puleston, who was its chairman, with another co-founding member, then Stony Brook professor Charles Wurster, a significant colleague.
WaterWorld: New septic nitrogen sensor passes field testing
- The nitrogen sensor designed for use in advanced treatment septic systems was developed by Dr. Qingzhi Zhu at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, in the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University.
News12: Walt Whitman student to continue brown tide research through Barcode Long Island
- The DNA Learning Center program invites high school students to gain an intuitive understanding of the crucial interdependence between humans and the natural environment. It collaborates with Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the American Museum of Natural History.
Mirage News: Frozen spawn could heat up shellfish industry efficiency
- Other projects in NYSG’s most recent research suite, which are led by principal investigators at Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, the University at Buffalo and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, spotlight issues including fish and shellfish habitat, oyster restoration and rip currents education.
New York Times: Art Cooley, 87, a Founder of the Environmental Defense Fund, Dies
- “Art was very adept at dealing with people and making friends,” Charles Wurster, one of the other founders of the Environmental Defense Fund and a former professor of biological sciences at what is now Stony Brook University, recalled in an interview. “His mind was very logical, he was very strategic, and he knew a lot about environmental issues.”
Coastal Review: Institute part of effort to study harnessing ocean’s energy
- Led by the University of New Hampshire, the partnership was awarded $9.7 million over four years from the U.S. Department of Energy. The institute, which is administered by East Carolina University, is also partnering with Stony Brook University in New York and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
Northforker: How the emergence of kelp is capturing carbon, fertilizing fields and tickling the fancy of North Fork chefs
- That changed when Stony Brook University kelp researcher Mike Doall planted kelp on Paul McCormick’s Great Gun Oyster Farm in Moriches Bay in 2020 and it grew better in a few feet of water than kelp grown at any of the other test sites, including the ones in the deepest waters.
Star-Gazette: NY colleges are training students to lead statewide push toward green energy. Here’s how
- The schools will share a grant of $570,000, which comes out of the state’s $20 million investment in the Offshore Wind Training Institute, a partnership between SUNY Farmingdale and Stony Brook University on Long Island. Also ran in Wellsville Daily Reporter, Ithaca Journal, Daily Messenger, Democrat and Chronicle, The Journal News – lohud.com, The Evening Tribune, Poughkeepsie Journal, The Leader, Yahoo News and the Times Telegram.
NASA Earth Expeditions: Planning, Coordinating and Communicating: The Science Behind Winter Storm Chasing Experiments
- Brian Colle, atmospheric science professor at Stony Brook University, is part of many operations in NASA’s Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS).
Latest Seminar Videos
In case you missed them, here’s the latest seminar videos available on our YouTube channel:
