On behalf of Zdenka Willis, President of the Marine Technology Society (MTS), and Mary Munk, of the Walter Munk Foundation for the Oceans (WMFO), it is my pleasure to inform you of your selection as recipient of the Walter Munk Scholar Award and Commemorative Lecture. This award seeks to underscore the great importance of ocean science and technology; to recognize your achievements to date; and to encourage you to continue Walter Munk’s legacy of daring exploration and discovery throughout your career.  Given the highly competitive field of candidates from which you were chosen, we are confident that you will bring distinction to what will become a growing list of future Munk Scholars.

Julia Engdahl, recent RUCOOL Masters in Oceanography graduate, won the NOAA Professional Excellence Award during her first year as a contractor for NOAA CO-OPS (Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services). NOAA CO-OPS Director, Richard Edwing, said the following: This award provides recognition for outstanding accomplishment in furthering CO-OPS’ mission through exceptional dedication or innovative approaches to their work while advancing morale among fellow employees. The Individual Award for Professional Excellence goes to: Julia Engdahl, OD (Lynker) Julia is being recognized for the professional excellence she has demonstrated in her first year as a Lynker contractor with CO-OPS. Her diverse contributions to CO-OPS and NOAA include providing quality control of water level and currents data; supporting the weekly Gain and Offset Backup Analysis, or GOBA, report; sharing her impressive coding skills; innovating product and process improvements; assisting with Software Carpentry workshops; and serving as the Executive Secretariat for NOAA AI Executive Committee and the Coordinator for the NOS AI Working Group. Julia’s leadership and support of CO-OPS CODE team activities has been exemplary. She has eagerly shared her skills with others and led and collaborated on multiple innovative coding projects; like converting microwave water level comparison scripts to Python, and bringing creativity to the Santa Monica Digital Display Project. One of Julia’s best known contributions to CO-OPS is her use of animated GIFs for the representation of water level and sea level trend data. Julia’s accomplishments are extensive and impressive, but even more so when considering that she was hired only 13 months ago – during the pandemic and without the benefits of in-person training, guidance, or collaboration. We are thankful to have you on board and looking forward to even more innovation. Congratulations Julia!

Congratulations to Emily on receiving award from an AFS John E. Skinner Memorial Award. The Skinner Award is intended to assist with expenses to attend the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society.

Congratulations to Emily Slesinger who has been elected for the 2021 University and Louis Bevier Fellowship Award

Congratulations to Jessica Valenti who has been awarded the School of Graduate Studies Merit and Achievement Award for Excellence in Leadership and Teaching.  This award recognizes Jessica’s excellent leadership and teaching at Rutgers, and her research in understanding the ecology of coastal fisheries and how they may respond to urbanization. Her dissertation work has been recognized externally through numerous awards for student posters and student oral presentations, as well as merit-based scholarship awards. Jessica has also distinguished herself in the leadership of group operations pertaining to her dissertation and to the wider profession. She served as the elected President of the Rutgers Student Subunit of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (AFS), led the Student Activities Committee for the 2018 AFS National Meeting, taught on the Rutgers Science Bus, and participated in various community outreach events (Rutgers Day, Rutgers University Marine Field Station open house). Congrats Jessica for excellent work!!!

Congratulations to Liam Ramsay (School of Engineering) for winning the Rutgers Internship Excellence Award (SEBS) for his intern work with RUCOOL. 7 students were honores at the Career Knights of Distinction Awards Dinner on Wednesday 5/4/2016. Liam’s work focused on dead-reckoning improvement as well as underwater flight performance & optimization. To see more pictures from the event, check out the album on our Flickr Page