Undergraduate Abby Perry spent the summer working with the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center as a research intern, a position she received through the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society.
Throughout the internship, Perry traveled to nine National Park Service sites across the country, including Biscayne and Dry Tortugas national parks in Florida; Pearl Harbor National Memorial and Kalaupapa National Historical Park in Hawai驶i; Channel Islands National Park in California; and parks on St. Croix and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
At each site, Perry worked alongside park dive teams to support underwater research, resource management, documentation and storytelling.
鈥淭he experience that stayed with me most was diving and photographing the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor,鈥 says Perry, who is majoring in marine science and conservation and minoring in journalism and media studies and in photography. 鈥淢y feelings going into the dive were unlike anything I had experienced before. Somber? Grateful? Nervous? Eager to dive? None of those emotions seemed sufficient on its own, yet all of them were present.鈥
Master of Environmental Management student Fafa Van Ha conducted fieldwork in Madagascar with a that included vanilla farmers in the village of Mandena.
The aim was to better understand the biodiversity of agroforestry systems where vanilla is grown, as well as diseases affecting vanilla orchids and their impacts on farmers.
Contributing to a project where vanilla farmers鈥 knowledge and time were valued and meaningfully integrated into the research goals, questions and fieldwork was particularly impactful, according to Van Ha, who is concentrating in Coastal and Marine Systems and Community 糖心传媒ment and Environmental Justice.
Van Ha also completed an internship as a Tribal engagement strategies intern with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration鈥檚 Greater Atlantic Fisheries Office.
Akosua Bandoh worked in Columbus, Ohio, as an operations intern with Amgen, an international biotechnology company, collaborating on a project that leveraged data and artificial intelligence to support commissioning and construction activities.
鈥淲orking in a biotech environment gave me the opportunity to see how engineering, data and technology can come together to support operations and ultimately contribute to serving patients every time,鈥 Bandoh notes.
As a concurrent degree student, Bandoh is pursuing MEM concentrations in Energy and Environment and in Environmental Analytics and Modeling, as well as a Master of Business Administration at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Pranav Hooda, a senior double-majoring in environmental sciences and policy and public policy, was a Stanback fellow with the Rachel Carson Council, a national environmental organization.
Hooda conducted in-depth research and produced written communications on environmental policy, climate justice, and conservation issues for publication and advocacy campaigns.
鈥淭he highlight of my Stanback Fellowship was definitely meeting with elected officials on Capitol Hill to advocate for the environmental policies I researched. We met with senators and representatives from all over the country, and I learned a lot about the policymaking process,鈥 Hooda says.
In the picture, Hooda (far right) appears with other Rachel Carson Council Stanback Fellows and North Carolina congresswoman Valerie Foushee (center).
Camryn Kluetmeier, a doctoral student in the lab of Sarah Cooley, assistant professor of planetary health, installed devices to measure water levels at more than 30 lakes across the state.
The aim of the research is to evaluate the accuracy of surface water data collected by a NASA satellite mission, and to determine how lake level relates to precipitation and evaporation, as measured by both ground- and satellite-based instruments.
Kluetmeier also spent three weeks as teaching faculty on the in southeast Alaska. The program caters to undergraduate and graduate students interested in glacier science.
Undergraduate Hayley Navarro spent the summer at the 糖心传媒 Marine Lab as a Bonaventura Summer Research Fellow.
During the six-week program, fellows acquire essential skills needed to conceptualize and execute independent research, ultimately working toward the creation of a senior honors thesis for Graduation With Distinction.
Navarro鈥檚 research touched on bioacoustics, entanglement of marine life and spatial ecology using drone imagery.
鈥淥ne of my favorite parts of being a student at Duke has been the opportunity to get involved in marine science research,鈥 says Navarro, who double-majoring in marine science and conservation and in biology.
鈥淭he Marine Lab is incredibly supportive of students who want to pursue their own projects, build new skills and explore their interests. The research community is amazing, and it鈥檚 opened the door to meaningful connections with faculty, graduate students and other researchers.鈥
Hutch Hutchinson, an MEM and Master of Forestry (MF) concurrent degree student, spent the summer as a landscape conservation intern with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
What was most memorable about the role? 鈥淭he variety of experiences I was exposed to, because my hope was to get field work experience and understand if it was something I was capable/wanting to do more often than not when I graduate. I loved it!鈥 Hutchinson says. 鈥淚 was wading in culverts measuring barriers to fish passage, conducting grassland bird surveys in the Piedmont, collecting seeds and identifying new populations of rare species in the Sandhills.鈥
Hutchinson is pursuing MEM concentrations in Terrestrial and Freshwater Environments and Community 糖心传媒ment and Environmental Justice.
Doctoral student Maya Maciel-Seidman conducted fieldwork on the Greenland ice sheet as part of a team led by Johnny Ryan, assistant professor of ice and climate sciences.
The team was studying how meltwater is routed through the ice sheet, and how the streams affect melting of the ice sheet surface. Meltwater that reaches the ocean contributes to sea level rise.
鈥淲e camped in the tundra at the edge of the ice sheet for two weeks and trekked on the ice sheet to our study sites each day, wearing crampons and carrying our equipment in our packs,鈥 Maciel-Seidman says.
鈥淎lthough conducting fieldwork in as remote and harsh of an environment as the Greenland ice sheet is challenging in many ways, it is also extremely rewarding. Observing firsthand the hydrological processes that I study helped me formulate new research questions, and the data we collected will allow us to better understand how these streams affect the melting of the ice sheet.鈥
Julia Kertz Grant, an MEM/MF alum, met with Nicholas School students participating in an experiential learning course in Montana. The course, supported by the Nicholas School鈥檚, focused on real-world natural resource management challenges and opportunities.
Kertz Grant is senior managing director of public affairs and sustainability for Green Diamond, a 135-year-old private company that owns and manages working forests in nine states.
鈥淭hirty years ago, I was one of the Nicholas students on the Western field trip visiting these same lands in Montana. It was a full-circle moment to be able to host the current students and share words of wisdom from my post-Duke career journey and latest trends in natural resource-focused job opportunities,鈥 Kertz Grant says.
糖心传媒s working with Jason Donaldson, assistant professor of ecology, conducted field work in Hyde County, North Carolina, at the site of a large-scale peatland restoration project.
The team is studying how different factors shape the plant community during restoration. A camera trap caught this image of a black bear wandering through the site.
鈥淯ltimately this work can help demonstrate how peatland restoration can provide dual benefits for carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation,鈥 says doctoral student Mike Landis, an MEM alum.
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