Achievement

Climate change in coastal ecosystems has been a pervasive emerging theme in our IGERT. Early in our program, one of our trainees, Leslie Smith, completed her internship assignment working with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in the United States Senate. Her assignment was to prepare a briefing document for Senator Whitehouse on what climate change impacts are likely to be in Narragansett Bay and coastal Rhode Island. Trainee Smith did an excellent job on the briefing report which was published in the peer reviewed journal Northeastern Naturalist during this reporting cycle. Her co-authors were Dr. Candace Oviatt of the IGERT faculty and Dr. Sandra Whitehouse, a Ph.D. oceanographer and mentor to Smith for this assignment. We consider this a significant research achievement because it demonstrates the seamless flow of knowledge from learning (internship experience) to scholarship (journal paper) in our IGERT curriculum.