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New Faces Abundant at SMS Research Colloquium

The University of Massachusetts School of Marine Sciences (SMS) held its 6^th Annual Research Colloquium on Friday, January 20^th, 2012 at the Healey Library in Boston, MA. Ten student and faculty members presented brief overviews of their research to the SMS community. In addition to the research talks, six SMS students presented their research during a morning and afternoon poster session. Three of the faculty members who gave talks are new to SMS, and they were excited to meet students and faculty from the other campuses.

Despite the bitter cold, 50 members of SMS attended the colloquium, and they were treated to a wide variety of talks. Climate and environmental change was a popular topic. Roop Saini, a Ph.D. candidate based on the Lowell campus, discussed the North American Monsoon, while Professor Jian-Hua Qian of the Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Science Department at UMass Lowell presented his research on rainfall variability over Southeast Asia. Professor Juliette Rooney-Varga from the Biological Sciences Department at UMass Lowell and director of the Climate Change Initiative examined the use of soil-based microbial fuel cells as a method of creating clean energy.

Several of the talks focused on chemical oceanography, although the sub-topics covered were wide-ranging. Zhuo Zhu, a Ph.D. from Dartmouth, covered her work on the presence of Alkylphenols in lobster, while Professor Helen Poynton from the department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences at UMass Boston discussed the effect of toxicology on gene expression in the Blue Mussel. Chawalit Charoenpong, a Dartmouth Masters student, concentrated on nitrogen loss of basins off the California coast using nitrate isotopes.

The remaining talks of the day spoke to the extensive nature of marine science study. Ian Paynter, a Ph.D. student at the Boston campus, covered his work on the Bottlenose Dolphin in Florida. Professor Saang-Yoon Hyun from the Department of Fisheries Oceanography at Dartmouth discussed his study of the uncertainty of tag loss. Steven Lohrenz, the Dean of the School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth, gave an overview of his research, focusing on satellite and in situ observation techniques.

2/14/12

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