Student Comments on their Experience
and Examples of Research Projects

“I remember it as being a very interesting and rewarding experience. It was my first chance to work on a collaborative research project and to do actual hands on field research. One of the most beneficial experiences I gained from the REU work was the ability to present research to a knowledgeable audience.”  (1999 REU Anthony Richey, MS 2002 Meteorology, St. Louis University, general Forecaster at National Weather Service).

“The students and advisors fostered a warm environment that welcomed scientific inquiry and the communication of knowledge.  Projects were carefully chosen to match the time of the program and all students received some field component.  My most lasting impression is of the overall atmosphere -- bright individuals from diverse backgrounds worked together to explore their love of the oceans and their quest for discovery -- and my participation in the REU program confirmed my thirst for oceanography.” (John Blum 2001 REU from Butler University, MI, currently in graduate student at Scripps Inst. Oceanography)

“The REU was a very positive experience, affirming my interest in coastal science, and helping me realize that the public policy/management aspects, versus pure research, are what suit my talents and abilities better.” (Zach Usher 2002 REU (2003 BS Geology, Washington & Lee University, VA) currently a Coastal Geologist for the Dewberry Companies of Fairfax Virginia.)

“My time at the REU program was actually very instrumental in helping me choose a career path.  It cemented an interest in the sea and science.  More importantly, it made me realize that I enjoyed research and the potential good our research could do for humanity.” (Carrie Loughlin 2000 REU Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA MD/PhD program in environmental health research)

“The time I spent at Stony Brook was an incredibly valuable undergraduate experience for me that profoundly shaped my view of academic research. As a college sophomore, I had just enough education to understand the scientific method and the tenets of good laboratory practices, but the collaboration and mentorship that come with working in a university lab was a new experience for me. Looking back, I can trace my later (albeit very modest) steps forward in research back to the positive experience I had at the MSRC.”  (John Plyman, REU 2000, BA Duke University 2002, Georgetown University Special Masters Program in Physiology and Biophysics 2003/MD program.)

Examples of Projects: Students,(hometown and school),Mentor(s)

Jason Keeler (White Plains, NY SUNY Oswego, Jr.) Mentor: Brian Colle, Convective Initiation and rapid decay of severe thunderstorms around the NYC Metro area and across LI Sound on 1 June 2006.

Jeanne Fernandez (Paris, France Lycee Louis le Grand, Fr. U.S. Citizen) Mentors: Josie Aller and Brian Colle,In search of aerosols: what they tell us about atmospheric conditions and marine influences.

Richard Parker (Rome, NY, Univ of Buffalo, NY, Jr.) Mentor:  Steve Munch, Computer simulation of juvenile silverside mortality: recommendations for sampling strategies.

Rachel Stern (Gilroy, CA, Loyola Marymount Univ., CA, Jr.) Mentor: Darcy Lonsdale, The effect of Mnemiopsis leidyi on planktonic trophic levels in Peconic bays.

Christine Blachly (Dix Hills, NY, Emory, GA, Soph.) Mentor: Brad Peterson, The trait-mediated interaction between Asian shore crabs and green crabs.

Monica Chu (Newton, MA, MIT, MA, Jr.) Mentor: Bassem Allam, Assessment of cellular immune responses in the American Lobster (predictions of environmental stress).

Jordan Mertes (Omaha, NE ,Univ of Nebraska, Jr.) Mentor: Joe Warren, Gas, Grass, and Acoustics:     Analysis of diel photosynthetic changes in the acoustic backscattering properties of Eelgrass Zostera marina, phytoplankton living at the sediment-water interface, and the water column.

Allison Citro (Rutland, VT, Dartmouth College, Jr.) Mentor: Chris Gobler, The role of temperature and nutrients in promoting blooms of toxic cyanobacteria in eastern Long Island ponds.

Meghan Weaver (Prairie Village, KS, Univ. of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Soph.) Mentor: Roger Flood, Mapping the Peconics: Multibeam bathymetry and backscatter analysis.

Amber Metzker (Fort Atkinson, WI St. Cloud Univ, MN, Soph.) Mentors: Bob Wilson and Charlie Flagg, The importance of Air-Sea Interactions for sea surface temperatures in The Great South Bay

Gregg Izzo (Mt. Sinai, NY, Univ. of Miami, FL, Soph.) Mentor: Brian Colle, Heat Flux, Wind Stress and the Great South Bay heat budget": importance for summer water circulation. PhD student SoMAS

Sarah Holsinger, (Clinton Township, MI, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Jr.) Mentor: Steve Goodbred, Major Geological and Ecological Changes in the GSB since the Late Holocene

Tobias Hatten (Newton, MA, Boston Univ., Jr.) Mentor: Roger Flood,  Did a Paleo Tsunami hit Great South Bay 2000 BP; Evidence for, and alternative scenarios?

L. Nicole Evans (Orange Park, FL Florida State Univ., Jr.) Mentor: Bob Cerrato, A look at Molluscan fauna in Great South Bay and changes over time in the faunal distributions

Diana Bierschenk (West Hempstead, NY, Boston Univ., Jr.)  Mentors: Steve Goodbred and Bob Cerrato, The distribution of Gemma gemma and Mulinia lateralis clams in the sediment of Great South Bay.

Adam Chasin (Brooklyn, NY, Binghamton University, NY, Jr) Mentor: J.Kirk Cochran, Influence of benthos on sediment accumulation in Great South Bay based on Be7 and Th234 radionuclide distributions.

Jeremiah Brower (Haines, AK, Humboldt State University, CA, Sr.) Mentor: Henry Bokuniewicz, Seismic Signature of Ocean Surf as it may relate to Coastal Erosion.

Examples of Publications and Abstracts of Presentations at National Meetings
- names of REU students are bolded:

Usher, Z., T. Businski, R. Homan, B. Manley, J. Pylman, J. Tomco, E. Vancza, J. Ward, S. Goodbred, and R. Cerrato. 2001. An investigation of physical, biological, and chemical factors impacting Mercenaria. Mercenaria in the Great South Bay, NY.

Pollock, Meagen and Blum, John, Bokuniewicz, Henry, and Wilson, Robert. 2001 Submarine groundwater discharge and salt penetration across the sediment-water interface.

Blum, John, Robert Wilson, Meagen Pollock,  and Henry Bokuniewicz  2001. Salt Penetration across the sediment-water interface. 2001.

Blum, J., R. Wilson, M. Pollock, and H. Bokuniewicz. 2002. The role Usher, Z., T. Businski, R. Homan, B. Manley, J. Pylman, J. Tomco, E. Vancza, J. Ward, S. Goodbred, and R. Cerrato. 2001. An investigation of physical, biological, and chemical factors impacting Mercenaria. Mercenaria in the Great South Bay, NY. ASLO Ocean Science Meeting, Albuquerque, NM February 2001.

Bokuniewicz, Henry, Pollock, Meagen, Blum, John, and Wilson, Robert. 2001 Submarine groundwater discharge and salt penetration across the sediment-water interface. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting November 5-8, 2001 Boston Massachusetts

Blum, John, Robert Wilson, Meagen Pollock,  and Henry Bokuniewicz  2001. Salt Penetration across the sediment-water interface. 2001.Twelfth Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering and Mathematics. Nov. 9-10, 2001, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois. 

Brennen, Kevin provided biological illustration for the jacket cover of The Belle W. Baruch Library in Marine Science No. 21 Organism-Sediment Interactions (edited by J.Y. Aller, S.A. Woodin, and R.C. Aller) 2001. Univ. So. Carolina Press, Columbia, SC.

Blum, J., R. Wilson, M. Pollock, and H. Bokuniewicz. 2002. “The role of fresh groundwater discharge in the dispersion and recirculation of salt in estuarine sediments” OS22A-145 Ocean Sciences meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, February, 2002

Sweeney, A., S.A. Sañudo-Wilhelmy. 2003. Trace metal and nutrient distributions in the East River and Long Island Sound: possible biological effects. Marine Pollution Bull. 48, Issues 7-8, 663-670

Beck, A. J., Pagano, M., Cochran, J. K., Masqué, P., Collavini, F., Frignani, and M., Bellucci. 2003. Comparison of two contaminated estuarine ecosystems- The Venice Lagoon, Italy, and Jamaica Bay, NY, USA: Chronologies of sediment and trace metal accumulation. ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting. Salt Lake City, Utah. Feb. 8-14, 2003.

Valdés, A. and A. Andrews G. Taylor, J. Aller, A. Volpi and D. Tagliapietra. Microbial Activity, Metabolic Potential and Functional Diversity in Venice Lagoon and Jamaica Bay. 2003.  ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting. Salt Lake City, Utah. Feb. 8-14, 2003.

Jahns, C., M. Kuznetsova, and J. Aller. 2003. Enrichment of the sea surface microlayer and marine aerosols by viruses and bacteria. ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Hololulu, Hawaii, Feb. 2004.

Aller, J.Y., M. Kuznetsova, C. Jahns, P.F. Kemp. 2005. Importance of the sea surface microlayer to the enrichment of viruses and bacteria in marine aerosols. Journal of Aerosol Science. Special issue: Measurement and Characterization of Bioaerosols - S.A. Grinshpun & J.M. Clark. (eds.) 36(5-6):801-812.

Holsinger, Sarah, Sarah Kolbe, Steven Goodbred, Roger Flood, Josephine Aller 2005.  Late Holocene history of the Great South Bay backbarrier lagoon, Long Island, New York: Evidence for a catastrophic beginning.  Abst for Ocean Sciences Meeting, February 20-25, 2005, Salt Lake City, Utah

Izzo, Greg. , Amber Metzker, R.A Wilson,  B. Colle, and C. Flagg 2006 The Air-Sea Interaction on the Great South Bay: Implications for Bay Circulation, Local Weather Forecasting, the Occurrence of Brown Tides and the Health of Hard Clam Populations Abst for 2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting Honolulu, Hawaii,20–24 February 2006

Christine Blachly and Bradley Petersen The trait-mediated interaction between Asian shore crabs and green crabs. Abst. for Benthic Ecology meeting (March 2007). 

Page last modified on Monday, January 14, 2008 by George E. Carroll