Grad students win CESE grants

Summer research projects funded by the Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering are pairing graduate students in CLAS and other schools with faculty mentors in their own departments and outside their disciplines.

The awards from CESE encourage multidisciplinary requiring students to have faculty project advisers from at least two different disciplines.

Zinnia Mukherjee, a PhD candidate in economics, will study the ecological and economic impact of hypoxia in the Long Island Sound.

Hypoxia, a low dissolved oxygen level, makes it difficult for marine species to survive.

“I am interested in using economic principles to find ways to protect endangered species and in research dealing with protection of marine resources,” she says. “My dissertation is about designing and evaluating environmental policies to protect endangered species, such as sea turtles and dolphins, from commercial fishers.”

Her faculty mentors are Kathleen Segerson in economics and Dipak Dey in statistics.

In addition to her advisers, Mukherjee will interact with other marine science faculty and with program managers at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

Chiu-Yen Kuo, a doctoral student in marine sciences, will study growing algae for fuel, using CO2 emission and wastewater. Her faculty advisers are Senjie Lin in Marine Sciences and Richard Parnas in chemical engineering.

Kuo’s background is in ecology, and she hopes to learn more about maximizing the growth rate of the algae species she studies and how to use chemical engineering to extract as much liquid as possible from the cultures in order to make a good quality biofuel.

Parnas, who has worked for years on biodiesel fuels, says that algae has the potential to provide a major source of fuel. He will help in extracting triglyceride oil from it and evaluating its quality for making biodiesel.

This was the third year of the CESE summer research awards. To date, nearly 60 graduate students have been awarded about $250,000 in support.

Other graduate students from CLAS receiving grants are:

Chunhu Chen, chemistry, advised by faculty members Steve Suib in chemistry and Mark Aindow in chemical, materials, and biomolecular engineering.

Laura Cisneros, ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), advised by Michael Willig in EEB and Daniel Civco in natural resources and the environment (NRE).

Kimberley Gallagher in Marine Sciences, advised by Pieter Visscher in marine sciences and David Knecht in molecular and cell biology (MCB).

David Leslie in anthropology, advised by Sally McBrearty in anthropology and Thomas Meyer in NRE.

Corey Merow in EEB, advised by John Silander in EEB and Dipak Dey in statistics.

Lauren Stefaniak in marine sciences, advised by Robert Whitlatch in marine sciences and Kent Holsinger in EEB.

Jonathan Velotta in EEB, advised by Eric Schultz in EEB and Rachel O’Neill in MCB.

Other CLAS faculty advising CESE students from other schools or colleges are Christian Bruckner, chemistry; Louise Lewis, EEB; and Eric Schultz, EEB.