{"id":1372,"date":"2012-09-01T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=1372"},"modified":"2024-09-18T14:08:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T18:08:28","slug":"people-and-places-awarding-north-carolina-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/people-and-places-awarding-north-carolina-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"PEOPLE AND PLACES: Awarding North Carolina Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Six North Carolina graduate students are among the winners of the 2012 Walter B. Jones Sr. Awards, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jones Awards for Excellence in Coastal and Marine Graduate Study recognize graduate students whose research “promises to contribute materially to the development of new or improved approaches to coastal or ocean management.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Town of Plymouth also is among the winners of a 2012 Jones Award for Coastal and Ocean Resource Management. Plymouth was selected for excellence in local government, along with communities from Florida, California and Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The awards, presented every other year, honor “the people and organizations of America for their dedication and outstanding contributions in helping the nation maintain healthy coastal and ocean resources and balance the needs of these resources with human use.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The national awards are named for Walter B. Jones, Sr., who represented North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1966 to 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten graduate student awards are given nationally every other year. North Carolina Sea Grant provided research funding for four of the six North Carolina winners in 2012. Also, three of the graduate students are doing research within N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The high number of North Carolina graduate students among the winners speaks to the excellent quality of marine and coastal research being conducted in our state, as well as to the caliber of the students themselves,” says Chris Brown, vice president for research and graduate education for the University of North Carolina System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michelle Brodeur is a doctoral student with Joel Fodrie in the Coastal Fisheries Oceanography and Ecology laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, or IMS. Previously a Sea Grant\/N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve fellow, she recently became a NOAA\/NERRS fellow. Her research focuses on management of oyster reefs and how climate change will interact with stressors, such as eutrophication and nuisance algae. Brodeur’s work on the effect of algal mats on intertidal oysters in the Rachel Carson Reserve site was featured in the Summer 2011 issue of Coastwatch. “Michelle has become an industry unto herself,” Fodrie says, citing her expertise in the oyster reef ecosystem consisting of macroalgae, fishes and other animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I really enjoy teaching the public about the habitats found in their backyards and hope to make my research \u2014 focusing on the processes that control where oyster reefs are found in the intertidal areas \u2014 accessible to the residents of North Carolina.” \u2014 Michelle Brodeur<\/p>\n\n\n\n