MEES IN THE NEWS
NEWS ARCHIVE
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR USM BOARD OF REGENTS & PRESIDENTIAL AWARD RECIPIENTS!
Dr. Lee Blaney Photo Courtesy: UMBC
Dr. Tamra Mendelson Photo Courtesy: UMBC
Dr. Yonathan Zohar Photo Courtesy: UMBC
June 1, 2022 - Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lee Blaney (UMBC), Dr. Yonathan Zohar (UMBC), and Dr. Tamra Mendelson (UMBC) in recently receiving on April 7, 2022 the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents Award & the Presidential Faculty and Staff Award (PFASA)! The USM Board of Regents Award represent the highest honor bestowed on faculty and staff across the University Systems of Maryland by the Board of Regents. Awardees are selected by the Council of University System Staff and approved by the Board. The awards recognize faculty and staff for excellence in teaching; research, scholarship, and creative activity; public service; mentoring; or innovation. For more information on the ceremony held, see UMBC’s article here.
Dr. Lee Blaney, a long time member of the MEES Faculty, is an Associate Professor of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering at UMBC, and has received the 2022 USM Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Blaney has received awards previously for exceptional mentoring and for engaging his students in high-impact research. His laboratory focuses on contaminants of emerging concern, such as compounds found in pharmaceuticals and personal care products, in waterways such as Chesapeake Bay.
Dr. Tamra Mendelson, who just recently became a member of the MEES Graduate Faculty, is a Professor of Biological Sciences at UMBC and recipient of the 2022 – 2025 Presidential Teaching Professor Award. Dr. Mendelson has been recognized for teaching with humor, creativity and enthusiasm and for “getting to the core of a concept” in her research and teaching.
Dr. Yonathan Zohar, another long time member of the MEES Faculty, is the Professor and Chair of Marine Biotechnology at UMBC and was awarded the 2022 – 2025 Presidential Research Professor Award. Dr. Zohar’s current work, which spans over three decades has brought in over the last few years over $10 million dollars of research funding, has earned international awards, and is poised to reimagine the seafood industry as we know it.
We at the MEES Graduate Program are so very proud of our faculty whose exemplary skills, leadership, creativity, and mentoring have been recognized! This is a well earned appreciation and acknowledgment of all your hard work! Congratulations!
NicoLE HOLMES - 2022 BILL HUPPERT ENDOWED STUDENT AWARD RECIPIENT
Nicole Holmes
May 21, 2022 - Congratulations to our very own Nicole Holmes (E&S, Fall ‘21) a M.S. student studying under the Environment & Society foundation who has been awarded the 2022 Bill Huppert Endowed Student Award for research in the Chesapeake Bay! Nicole will work with Dr. L. Jen Shaffer and Dr. Kenneth Rose, her advisors, on her project, "Indigenous Involvement in Environmental Restoration: An analysis of the Chesapeake Bay," and will research local First Nations Tribes and their involvement in the Chesapeake Bay restoration. She will investigate if local Tribes are involved with the restoration through the Chesapeake Bay Program, and if not why. She will also have the opportunity to analyze Traditional Environmental Knowledge in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. After graduation, she would like to pursue a PhD in Political Ecology, Environmental Anthropology, or Environmental Justice with the intent to influence future federal government policy decisions about the implementation of restoration and conservation, as well as First Nations rights surrounding Environmental Management practices. For more information on this prestigious award, click here.
JUNE 2022 - NATIONAL OUTDOORS MONTH
Monthly Spotlight: National Outdoors Month (June 2022) - Dr. Robert Tjaden, a longtime member of the MEES Faculty, is a Professor at the Department of Environmental Science & Technology and Extension Specialist Emeritus at the University of Maryland. One of Dr. Tjaden’s research interests is in assessing Maryland's forest resources and future sustainability of Maryland’s Forest Industry. Check out his talk courtesy of the University of Maryland Extension’s WSE Webinar Series: “Ecosystem Services on Forest & Agricultural Lands of Maryland.”
Faculty Focus: Researchers at the Chesapeake Bay Multispecies Monitoring and Assessment Program, which started in 2002, have identified a handful of factors that influence forage populations in general in the Chesapeake Bay. Dr. Ryan Woodland, MEES Faculty member and an associate professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (UMCES), said that.. shifts [between the rate at which [Bay] water gets warm and the standing amount of forage during the summer] could affect the timing of natural processes for both forage species and their predators. For more information, click here.
MEES Research Corner: Suzanne Webster (E&S, Ph.D. ‘21), had already published two peer reviewed journal articles as an undergraduate prior to entering the MEES program, and while in the MEES program, Suzanne received numerous awards from the University of Maryland Graduate School including the prestigious Debbie-Morrin Nordlund (2017) & Anne G. Wylie Fellowship Award (Fall 2021). Her dissertation entitled: “Using citizen science to collaboratively research and manage Chesapeake Bay” explored the various challenges that limit the use and potential impact of citizen science in Chesapeake Bay; showing that using a transdisciplinary approach to citizen science can increase stakeholders’ feelings of engagement, improve perceptions of a program’s overall credibility, and increase the program’s overall likelihood for impact. For more information click here.