Heather Ballestero is beginning her graduate work in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz with dual degrees in Anthropology and Environmental Studies. In Louisiana she is embarking on the adventure of a lifetime in the embodiment of an internship that the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) has initiated.  At present, the project has Heather linking Sea Grant agents with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Office of Response and Restoration (NOAA OR&R) over the human dimensions involved with oil spills in Louisiana's coastal regions. Starting in late August, she will take courses at Louisiana State University (LSU) that will give her unique insight and hands-on experience with the coastal wetlands and estuaries of Louisiana. She will continue on in spring 2008 to work towards a Masters degree in Natural Resources from the University of New Hampshire (UNH). 

• October Update
• September Update
• August Update
• July Update

Center Co-Director, Nancy Kinner and Faculty Advisor Mimi Becker recently visited Heather.  See pictures from their dinner with Louisiana State University faculty and NOAA staff on October 2, 2007 here>>

Whitney Blanchard enrolled as a graduate student in the civil engineering program with the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) in the Environmental Research Group at UNH. In September 2006, she completed her B.S. in the environmental engineering program.  Blanchard’s area of research is oil spill remediation in Arctic environments.  More specifically, her interest is in modeling the effects of accident oil released in ice and the risk associated with oil discharge. For the 2007–2008 academic year, Blanchard will work with environmental modelers in the Marine Environmental Technology Group at Sintef in Trondheim, Norway.  Her stay at Sintef will be divided into two phases.  First, she will be working on the oil–in–ice columns studies to simulate an oil spill under ice.   The project will start on the micro– and meso–scale.  The second half of her time will be spent developing numerical algorithms to build a dynamic model from the column studies and earlier work by other investigators.  In addition, Blanchard is enrolled as a visiting student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the Programme in Coastal and Marine Civil Engineering and will take several courses in the fall and spring terms.

The Center is pleased to offer Whitneys project paper, Biodegradation Potential of Oil in Arctic First-Year Sea Ice

See Whitney's poster, Numerical Modeling of Oil Fate and Transport in Ice

• January Update
• December Update
• November Update
• October Update
• Septmber Update
• August Update
• July Update

Zachary Magdol is a senior at UNH.  He plans to graduate in May 2008 with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering - Municipal Processes. Last summer he worked with the UNH Marine Debris Research Group concentrating on compiling existing data and collecting new data. With the aid of his mentor, Dr. Jenna Jambeck, he worked hard on finding a way to express five years worth of marine debris collection data in a comprehensive, yet concise way. Zach is interested in the sources and transport of marine debris. He hopes that his contribution will help in finding a solution to mitigate marine debris. Zach was glad to be given this opportunity and looks forward to it opening more doors for his educational future.

Starting June 1, 2008 Zach will be an intern at the NOAA facility in Seattle, WA. He will be working on an abandoned vessel project with Doug Helton. The main goal of this project is to survey, accurately locate, and prioritize the risk associated with abandoned vessels in US waters. He will work on making the database more available and organized and will also take part in abandoned vessel cleanups and write reports to add to the database.

See Zach's poster, The Development of an Integrated PDA PDA-GPS Protocol for Marine Debris, Mitigation and Decision Decision-making

Becca Rubenstein will be a senior in high school this fall. She plans on studying Environmental Engineering in college and recently had the opportunity to experience first hand what that entails. This summer she worked in Dr. Jenna Jambeck’s marine debris research group, exploring the potential impacts of cigarette butts littered on the beach on harm human health and the environment. Cigarette butts far outnumber all other types of litter found on the beach, with 51,933 butts picked up by volunteers on Hampton Beach alone in 1.5 years.

Read an article about Becca's research project in the April 9, 2008 issue of UNH's Campus Journal here>>