MARYLAND WILL SUPPORT FOUR KNAUSS MARINE POLICY FELLOWS IN 2013 to work for federal agencies on issues involving marine and coastal resources. The fellows, all of whom studied at the University of Maryland, will focus on topics such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, fisheries, and international affairs.

Jennifer Bosch is spending her fellowship year in the Office of Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She plans to collaborate with researchers and decision makers to help them create policies and other tools to solve environmental management issues.

As a doctoral student in marine ecology and environmental science at the University of Maryland, she has studied the biogeochemistry and ecological impacts of the Chesapeake Bay's low-oxygen regions or "dead zones." She is analyzing shifts in benthic invertebrate community structure and consequences for nutrient cycling processes.

As an undergraduate and later a marine scientist at Rutgers University, she developed and ran a satellite data system about sea-surface temperatures that remains widely used by scientists and commercial and recreational fishers.

Nicole Bransome is the inaugural Knauss fellow for the Department of the Interior's Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes Coordination team. As a policy and communications specialist, she will coordinate Interior's work on oceans across the department's bureaus and with federal partners.

Bransome is pursuing a master's degree in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences program at Maryland. For her thesis, she is modeling restoration of diadromous river herring in Maine and the resultant potential recovery of their groundfish predators, like Atlantic cod.

Originally from Maryland, Bransome found a passion for marine science while volunteering with National Park Service biologists on studies of tidepools in San Diego. She also spent a year working for AmeriCorps in the Maryland Park Service.

Carrie Soltanoff is serving in the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of International Affairs at NOAA. Her portfolio will include shark and Atlantic tuna conservation, bycatch reduction, and regulation of foreign fishing vessels. She will produce briefing materials and policy papers for meetings and negotiations on international issues.

Originally from upstate New York, Soltanoff completed a master of science degree in the Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology program at Maryland.

She served as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in Ecuador, where she conducted work for her thesis about shifting environmental baselines among fishermen — the idea that each generation of fishermen has a distinct view of the current state of fish populations — and the implications for management of a marine reserve.

Metthea Yepsen is working in NOAA's Restoration Center in the Office of Habitat Conservation as a policy and science coordinator on the office's Deepwater Horizon oil spill restoration efforts. She will assist in ensuring that science and adaptive management are integrated into restoration initiatives.

Yepsen received an M.S. degree in environmental science and technology from Maryland with a focus on wetland ecology and restoration. For her thesis research, she worked on a U.S. Department of Agriculture project to evaluate the effectiveness of federal wetland conservation practices and restoration in agricultural areas. To measure ecosystem services provided by wetlands, she compared plant communities in natural, restored, and farmland sites in several Mid-Atlantic states, including Maryland.

Yepsen completed a bachelor's degree in the humanities, studying diplomatic history. Her career path changed when she joined AmeriCorps in Hawaii, where she peformed conservation work. Those experiences sparked an interest in a career in environmental science.

• Maryland Sea Grant Program, Knauss Fellowships:
  www.mdsg.umd.edu/topics/graduate-fellowships/knauss-marine-policy-fellowships/
• National Sea Grant Program, Knauss Fellowships:
  seagrant.noaa.gov/FundingFellowships/KnaussFellowship.aspx