Columbus, OH After a highly competitive application process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has selected its 2015 class of John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellows. Among the 52 selectees is Sarah Bowman, the 2015 Ohio Sea Grant Knauss Fellow who will be working as a Natural Resource Specialist at the National Sea Grant Office.
Bowman is currently a PhD candidate in Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor’s degree from Baldwin-Wallace University in Ohio. Her dissertation work focuses on lead contamination at a shooting range, and on how that contamination can be managed better to reduce lead impacts on local organisms.
“In the future, I would like to become an environmental scientist for a federal agency such as NOAA, so being chosen as a Knauss Fellow puts me one step closer to achieving that ultimate career goal,” Bowman says. “I am interested in understanding how contaminants affect marine and aquatic organisms, and plan to use my experiences and education to help inform clean-up, management, and restoration decisions of coastal and marine ecosystems. The opportunity of working in Washington, D.C., will let me further develop these skills.”
“I am confident that Sarah will represent Ohio, The Ohio State University, Ohio Sea Grant, and Ohio State’s Stone Lab fantastically in Washington, DC,” says Ohio Sea Grant Associate Director Dr. Chris Winslow, who interviewed Sarah as part of her application. “She is a gifted researcher who has passion for Lake Erie and our country’s coastal resources, and the Knauss fellowship, a highly competitive position, is an extraordinary opportunity that I am confident that Sarah will use as a steppingstone to a successful and impactful career.”
The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship provides a unique educational experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. The Fellowship, named after one of Sea Grant’s founders, former NOAA Administrator John A. Knauss, matches highly qualified graduate students with “hosts” in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid fellowship. For more information, visit seagrant.noaa.gov/FundingFellowships/KnaussFellowship.aspx.
Located on the 6.5-acre Gibraltar Island in Put-in-Bay harbor, Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s Island Campus on Lake Erie and the research, education, and outreach facility of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. The Ohio State University’s Ohio Sea Grant Program is part of NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 33 Sea Grant programs dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. For information on Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab, visit ohioseagrant.osu.edu.