RUCOOL hosted 4-H STEM Ambassadors to explore the use of drones for remote sensing and environmental monitoring.  The 4-H STEM Ambassador program welcomes New Jersey youth from middle and high school to the SEBS campus to participate in hands-on activities as they learn alongside Rutgers faculty in their respective discipline. Now in its 14th year, the program supports young people from six urban communities around New Jersey, with the objective of supporting and encouraging first generation college students in the pursuit of STEM careers. Seven STEM Ambassadors spent the day with Dr. Hugh Roarty from RUCOOL to learn about the High Frequency radar network that is used to measure ocean surface currents and how drones are used to calibrate the radars.  The STEM Ambassadors will take the knowledge they have gained this past week back to their respective communities and teach-back to their younger peers at local YMCAs, libraries, and afterschool programs.   Pictured from left to right along with their respective 4H county affiliation: Dr. Hugh Roarty, Sofia Oliveria Dias (Union), Samantha Alerte (Hudson), Crystal Lopez Cruz (Middlesex), Peyton Moore (Atlantic), Olivia Marker-Pittock (chaperone), Mohal Singh (Middlesex), Nicholas Manahan (Mercer), Marissa Staffen (4H Agent for Essex County), and Megan Denton (Mercer).  

Teledyne Marine has awarded a Teledyne Marine and Doug Webb graduate student fellowship over the next three years in celebration of RU COOL’s 30th anniversary. This graduate fellowship is focused on supporting research using autonomous underwater gliders.  This reflects the strong multi-decade partnership between Teledyne Marine Rutgers and Doug Webb (the inventor of the Slocum Glider).  Doug Webb has long been an inspiration to the RU COOL team and his mantra of “work hard have fun and change the world” is the group’s motto.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) recently announced the award of funding for studies to provide enhanced scientific information on the impacts of offshore wind energy development off New Jersey’s coastline as well as the state’s entry into a regional offshore-wind science collaborative. The development of New Jersey’s offshore wind resources is a core strategy of the state’s Energy Master Plan, which identifies the most ambitious and cost-effective ways of reaching 100 percent clean energy by 2050. Identified as priorities by a diverse group of stakeholders, the studies are the first funded projects through the Offshore Wind Research & Monitoring Initiative (RMI). This collaborative effort of the DEP and BPU is working to coordinate and expand research into impacts of offshore wind development on wildlife and fisheries. The projects are funded by two offshore wind farm developers through a fund administered by the state. Among the RMI-funded initiatives is a $2.5 million award to Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership to fully support a New Jersey statewide ‘eco-glider’ program that will provide seasonal resolution data for a large range of parameters, including physical and chemical variables, and biological variables spanning from phytoplankton and zooplankton to pelagic fish and marine mammals. Full article at NJAES Newsroom

Seven SEBS faculty representing a broad range of majors and programs at the school were awarded 2022 Rutgers Global Grants, annual seed grants open to all Rutgers faculty, including tenured, tenure-track, clinical, and non-tenure track faculty.. These grants help to support a strong core of SEBS faculty who are dedicated to international research and collaborations. Full article at SEBS Newsroom

Dr. Travis Miles was interviewed by AccuWeather yesterday discussing the uses of Rutgers underwater Slocum gliders towards forecasting hurricane intensities at landfall. The coastal ocean temperatures play an enormous role in the intensification of deintensification of tropical cyclones as they approach our coasts. Gliders acquire data from the ocean surface to the ocean floor, and can swim right under the eye of a tropical cyclone without any issues, delivering data back to us on land that we send to forecast models to help improve their accuracy. To see Travis in action, visit: https://www.accuweather.com/en/videos/special-robots-glide-in-hurricane-waters-to-help-with-forecasts-research/FhVlOdYn

It’s been a spring of alarming headlines for the coldest climates on Earth, from record heat waves at both poles, to a never-before-seen ice shelf collapse in East Antarctica. But what can we say for sure about how the Arctic and Antarctic are changing under global warming? In this Zoom taping, guest host Umair Irfan talks to two scientists, Arctic climate researcher Uma Bhatt and Antarctic biological oceanographer Oscar Schofield, about the changes they’re seeing on the ice and in the water, and the complex but different ecologies of both these regions. Plus, answering listener questions about the warming polar regions. Original article and video at Science Friday

Congratulation Grace Saba who was granted tenure by Rutgers.  This is a well deserved honor. Dr. Grace Saba joined the Rutgers faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2015. Grace is one of the most dedicated and talented teachers in the Department. She has been anchor teacher in several upper division courses required by the marine science undergraduate majors. She has graduated two PhD and one Masters Student. Dr. Saba’s research is focused on understanding how marine organisms respond to their current and future environments and how those responses then feedback on the ecosystem. This research focus is important given observations that the ocean is undergoing accelerating physical and chemical changes.  Increasing ocean temperatures and acidification directly affect organismal metabolism and physiology, which in turn affects growth and eventually population demographics.  Congratulations Grace for great work done.