Summer is here! Here’s what happened at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences as we wrap up the semester and kick off the summer research season!
Congratulations to the graduates of the Class of 2023! In case you missed it, SoMAS celebrated the Class of 2023 at our annual Convocation event on Friday, May 19, 2023 at the Bauman Center for Leadership and Service.
This is also our scholarly awards season! Ms. Alyson Lowell has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Nuria Protopopescu Memorial Teaching Award. This award is presented annually to a SoMAS graduate student based on demonstrated excellence in teaching, innovation and creativity in instructional plans and materials, and engagement with and dedication to their students. Skyler Harman has been selected as the 2023 Petra M. Udelhofen Scholarship Award winner. Isabella Gagliano and Abbie Austin are the recipients of the 2023 Timothy Magnussen Memorial Scholarship Award. Nathaniel Willse is the recipient of the Pikitch Family Endowed Student Research Award.
The URECA website regularly features students’ perspectives on research and/or creative activities.
This month, URECA presents a group of graduating seniors who have contributed to the research life of this campus. The featured students include:
Joshua Lee – Biochemistry & Economics majors – Mentor: Dr. Bassem Allam & Dr. Emmanuelle Pales Espinosa, School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences
Josh Lee is a Biochemistry and Economics double major in the Honors College. Working under the guidance of Dr. Bassem Allam, Dr. Emmanuelle Pales Espinosa, and Ph.D. candidate Christopher Brianik, Josh conducted research on the variation in cellular and immune parameters of triploid and diploid eastern oysters using flow cytometery. His work was supported by the New York Sea Grant and the Marine Animal Disease Laboratory, and he presented his findings at the American Fisheries Society, National Shellfisheries Association, and EarthStock. Beyond academics, Josh is an active volunteer firefighter and EMT in his hometown of Syosset, and enjoys fishing in his free time. Josh is driven to pursue a career in medicine and has plans to attend medical school in the
future. Joshua is a recipient of the Provost’s award for Academic Excellence.
News Headlines at Stony Brook University
- ‘Forever Wild’ Gives Voice to Ashley Schiff Preserve – Book now available for purchase from Barnes & Noble!
- 21 Faculty and Staff Earn Chancellor’s Award for Excellence
- Q&A with Meteorologist Craig Allen ’79 in SB Matters
- SBU Included in $4M in Grants for Offshore Wind Training and Workforce Development
- CommUniversity Day Returns to SBU September 23
- The Simons Foundation’s contribution is the largest unrestricted endowment gift to a higher education institution in American history
Latest Seminar Videos
- Melissa Leone, Southampton Lecture Series, 2023-05-03 “Eavesdropping on fishes and whales – what’s the tea?”.
- Mercer Brugler, Okubo Scholar 2023 at OSAC 2023-05-05 My (Current) Shiny Objects: Black corals, oyster reefs, horseshoe crabs, & leeches
Latest Publications
Li, Y., Sun, M., Kleisner, K. M., Mills, K. E., & Chen, Y. (2023). A global synthesis of climate vulnerability assessments on marine fisheries: methods, scales and knowledge co‐production. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.
Bohorquez, J.J., Dvarskas, A., Jacquet, J., Sumaila, U.R., Nye, J.A., & Pikitch, E.K., (2023). A novel framework to evaluate the financial sustainability of marine protected areas. Biological Conservation. 283, 110083.
Sun, M., Setiawan, A., Susila, P. B., Ernawati, T., Fang, L., Fujita, R., Guan, L., Harlisa, H., Ingles, J., Mesa, S., Kleisner, K., & Chen, Y. (2023). Evaluating adaptive management frameworks for data-limited crustacean fisheries. Journal of environmental management, 341, 118074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118074
Kahn, B., Lowell, A., DeLany, F., MacGregor, J., Peterson, B., & Zarnoch, C. (2023). Acidification alters sediment nitrogen source-sink dynamics in eelgrass (Zostera marina (L.)) beds. Biogeochemistry, 1-21.
Cahill, B. V., DeGroot, B. C., Brewster, L. R., Lombardo, S. M., Bangley, C. W., Ogburn, M. B., & Ajemian, M. J. (2023). Visitation patterns of two ray mesopredators at shellfish aquaculture leases in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. Plos one, 18(5), e0285390.
Chi, L., Wolfe, C. L., & Hameed, S. (2023). Reconsidering the relationship between Gulf Stream transport and dynamic sea level at US East Coast. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(9), e2022GL102018.
Sun, M., Li, Y., Suatoni, L., Kempf, A., Taylor, M., Fulton, E., … & Chen, Y. (2023). Status and Management of Mixed Fisheries: A Global Synthesis. Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture, 1-25.
Press Headlines
Governing: New York City Plans Climate Center on Governors Island
- With a coalition of postsecondary partners, led by Stony Brook University, the primary goals of the Exchange are to further climate research and to educate and prepare New Yorkers for the green jobs of the future.
WSHU-FM: With a deadline looming, Long Island towns evaluate how they collaborate on trash
- In mid-March town officials from Smithtown, Babylon, Islip, Brookhaven and other municipalities joined waste management companies and other industry leaders at an environmental symposium at Stony Brook University to begin planning ahead of the expected closure of the Brookhaven Landfill in the next few years.
The Stute: Governors Island to become an innovative hub of climate research and education
- State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook has been selected to lead the revolutionary transformation of Governors Island, a small 172-acre island in New York Harbor, just south of Manhattan Island and a quick 400-yards from Brooklyn across the Buttermilk Channel.
East Hampton Star: Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s President Steps Down
- The group recently retained Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to assess the hamlet’s wastewater issues, a move that followed the Suffolk County Parks Commission’s vote to reject a land swap with East Hampton Town that foiled a town board proposal to build a sewage treatment plant in Hither Woods. Dr. Gobler has also been monitoring Montauk’s Fort Pond for harmful algal blooms for the past six years.
WPIX-TV: Calls for change as beached whale numbers increase
- Dr. Lesley Thorne is a professor at Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. “Whales that are observed on shore waters are pretty much exclusively juveniles,” said Thorne. “It’s possible their surface foraging behavior might put them at higher risk of vessel strikes.”
The Daily: ‘A truly exciting partnership’ (University of Washington student media)
- The consortium, headed by Stony Brook University, has members from several major institutions and companies. Members include Georgia Institute of Technology, Duke University, Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford, Pace University, the Pratt Institute, the Good Old Lower East Side community group, Boston Consulting Group, and IBM.
DredgeWire: New York City Plans Climate Center on Governors Island
- With a coalition of postsecondary partners, led by Stony Brook University, the primary goals of the Exchange are to further climate research and to educate and prepare New Yorkers for the green jobs of the future. To that end, the new Exchange campus is expected to house hundreds of college students. An expansion of the existing Harbor School is already well underway, adding additional buildings and students.
Inside Climate News: Climate Change Forces a Rethinking of Mammoth Everglades Restoration Plan
- One preliminary study concluded that climate change increased Ian’s rainfall rates by more than 10 percent, according to researchers at Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Also ran in News Leaflets, WLRN-TV (BBC Newshour Miami), WUWF-FM (NPR Great Northwest Florida), Orlando Sentinel and World-Energy.
Newsday: Massapequa boater James Jaronczyk missing in Great South Bay: Suffolk Marine unit continues search
- According to statistics from Stony Brook University, the water temperature Monday morning from Buoy No. 1 in the Great South Bay was between 59 and 60 degrees. On Tuesday, the temperature was closer to 62 degrees. A hypothermia table from the National Center for Cold Water Safety indicates that survival, at that temperature, would last between one and six hours.
Counter Punch: The Women of Three Mile Island
- Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island is the title of a newly released documentary feature film directed, written and produced by award-winning filmmaker Heidi Hutner, a professor of environmental humanities at Stony Brook University, a “flagship” school of the State University of New York. Also ran in Nation of Change
NewsBeezer: InVADER mission tests its robotic laser submersible robot on a deep sea expedition
- The InVADER project is funded by a NASA grant to Planetary Science and Technology from Analog Research (PSTAR). Dr. Pablo Sobron, a SETI Institute physicist and founder of Impossible Sensing, and Dr. Laurie Barge, a NASA JPL research scientist, is leading the project. Also on the project are collaborators from the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Hawai’i, University of Southern California, State University of New York – Stony Brook, University of Southampton, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Oak Crest, involved Institute for Science, Honeybee Robotics, Impossible Sensing and the Geological Survey of Belgium
East Hampton Star: Grants on Deck for Eight Water Projects
- Councilman David Lys said that he is opposed to a constructed wetland, preferring a conventional system that would cost significantly less. “The committee struggled with that, too,” Ms. Winslow said, but after discussions with officials at the Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University, members “saw the benefits of supporting the technology itself,” she said. “It could be promising for a lot of other problem sites” and “a good demonstration piece. But it’s up to the board.”
University of Buffalo News Center: UB TCIE awarded $500,000 grant to grow New York’s offshore wind workforce
- “We are grateful to SUNY and the OWTI for this award to help grow New York State’s offshore wind industry. We look forward to working with the OWTI and our project partners at Alfred State College, Farmingdale State College, Stony Brook University, Goodwill of Western New York and Northland Workforce Training Center to connect Western New Yorkers with training that leads to good-paying jobs in offshore wind,” says Timothy Leyh, UB TCIE executive director.
WSHU (NPR): Urgent Long Island trash study headed up by veteran Stony Brook researcher
- The weight of the 14 million tons of waste that Long Island generates yearly might be said to rest on the shoulders of one Stony Brook University researcher. Frank Roethel, director of the Waste Reduction and Management Institute, is the lead author on a state-funded study that will make recommendations for the region’s 13 towns and two cities in charge of local waste management. His team is on a rapidly approaching deadline as the Brookhaven Landfill, which handles the waste of over two million Long Island residents, is scheduled to close over the next few years.
Daily Kos/CounterPunch: Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
- Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island is the title of a newly-released documentary feature film directed, written and produced by award-winning filmmaker Heidi Hutner, a professor of environmental humanities at Stony Brook University, a “flagship” school of the State University of New York. Also ran in The Sentinel.
Mirage News: Acoustic Tags Reveal Predator Interactions: Crushed Clams, Roaming Rays
- “Since 84 percent of all visits were from whitespotted eagle rays and their visits were significantly longer at night, this information suggests that observed interactions with the clam leases are potentially underestimated, given most clamming operations occur during daytime,” said Brianna Cahill, corresponding author, an FAU Harbor Branch marine science and oceanography graduate, and a research technician at Stony Brook University. Also ran in Newswise, Phys.org, News Leaflets, News Concerns and Today News 24. Science Daily and many others.
JUS TV: Stony Brook University Plan to Build the New York Climate Exchange Jus Tv (on cable systems in USA, UK Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India)
- Overview of the Governors Island/Stony Brook announcement and interview with Professor Kevin Reed.
Scientific American: When Disaster Strikes, Is Climate Change to Blame?
- Like the WWA, Wehner and his collaborator, Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University, are trying to conduct attribution studies in almost real time.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Oleander Project Transfers to WHOI Management
- Magdalena Andres, an associate scientist in WHOI’s Department of Physical Oceanography will head the effort, which began in 1992 under the leadership of H. Thomas Rossby at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (URI GSO) and Charles Flagg at Stony Brook University, New York. Also ran in Newswise and ECO Magazine
Eurasia Review: InVADER Mission To Test Robotic Laser Divebot An Deep-Sea Expedition
- The project also involves collaborators from the University of Washingon’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the University of Hawai’i, the University of Southern California, the State University of New York—Stony Brook, the University of Shouthampton, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Oak Crest Institute of Science, Honeybee Robotics, Impossible Sensing, and the Geological Survey of Belgium.
CBS News: Are you prepared for hurricane season? CBS2 has what you need to know
- Kevin Reed with Stony Brook University expects an average season, too, but cautions, “An average season in 2023 is different than what an average season would have looked like in 1960. We live in a world that has experienced climate change.” Reed says that means individual storms will be more intense and produce higher rainfall rates. Also ran in Bharat Express News.
East Hampton Star: How’s the Water? An Accabonac Harbor Update
- Following a reception at 5 p.m., Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Center for Clean Water Technology will discuss his 10 years of research in the harbor. Dr. Gobler will be followed by Jade Blennau of the Peconic Estuary Partnership, who will discuss salt marsh resilience and building partnerships.
WABC-TV: Several newly-funded research projects devoted to preserving Long Island Sound
- Stony Brook Professor Robyn Linner explains her research project that is devoted to preserving the Long Island Sound.
Babylon Village Patch: Where Does Your Toilet Water Go? This LI Non Profit Wants You To Know
- Brown tide in particular has had particularly detrimental effects on the Peconic Bay ecosystem and the economy of eastern Long Island, according to Stony Brook University. During intense bloom conditions, densities of the brown tide organism can approach two million cells per milliliter.
NCAR & UCAR News: NCAR’S NEXT-GEN AIRBORNE RADAR WILL HAVE UNMATCHED ABILITY TO PEER DEEP INSIDE STORMS
- Other project partners include NOAA, Ball Aerospace, Colorado State University, State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Oklahoma.