School Ties

Cecily Natunewicz says she always knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Even as a 5-year-old, she had decided that she wanted to study all the "neat organisms" in the water, she says today. Her early fascination with the aquatic environment persisted, and now, as an assistant professor of oceanography at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., her childhood dreams have blossomed into reality.

"I used to spend every summer at the Jersey shore," Natunewicz, who earned her doctoral degree from the College of Marine Studies in 2000, says. "I loved the ocean, the beach, the animals and plants that washed up on shore and fishing with my grandfather."

With her focus on a future in the marine sciences, Natunewicz earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Yale University in 1995. She then enrolled in UD's graduate College of Marine Studies, under the advisement of Charles E. Epifanio, professor of marine biology–biochemistry.

At the College, Natunewicz took advantage of a policy that allows exceptional students to bypass their master's degree. Leapfrogging her master's streamlined her journey by allowing her to work directly toward a doctorate. Her doctoral research focused on the Atlantic blue crab, or Callinectes sapidus, which is one of the most important fisheries of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays.

Today, Natunewicz continues to maintain her ties to the University and to the Delaware coast as she begins to establish her own research program at the Naval Academy. This past summer, she sailed back to Lewes, Del., to continue research on the blue crab with Epifanio and Richard Garvine, Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies and professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the College.

She made the trip aboard YP686, a 108-foot Navy research vessel that is specially equipped for collecting oceanographic data. Access to the vessel is one of the aspects of teaching at the Naval Academy that she enjoys most, Natunewicz says, and she uses it to take her students out on the Chesapeake Bay several times a month, for both training and research purposes.

The goal of the research she is conducting in collaboration with Epifanio and Garvine is to assist in understanding the factors that affect the population of blue crabs in the Delaware and Chesapeake bays from year to year. She says she hopes the project will yield insights into the number of crabs that can be harvested each year while still maintaining the health of the blue crab fishery--a vital resource to both bays.

"I love crabs steamed with Old Bay [seasoning]," Natunewicz says. "If we don't learn more about their population dynamics, we'll never know how to protect them from overharvesting."

The collaboration between UD and the Naval Academy means that Epifanio gets a chance to continue working alongside his former student.

"The biggest change in Cecily over the years has been an increased confidence in herself as a scientist," he says. "It's been fun to watch her evolve from the scientifically unsure intern who entered my lab in the summer of 1994 to the confident young professor at the academy."

Natunewicz followed her graduation from UD with a brief stint as a postdoctoral researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Beaufort, N.C. There, she studied the effects of El Niño and other climate-related events on fish larvae in Beaufort Inlet.

In 2002, she landed the job as assistant professor of oceanography at the Naval Academy. "I was thrilled and relieved but also terrified when I heard that I had received the position," she says. "I hadn't designed or taught formal classes before, and I knew relatively little about the military."

Natunewicz teaches general oceanography and biological oceanography, which concerns the interaction of organisms with the ocean environment. Her classes typically consist of about 15 students. She is a civilian member of the academy's Department of Oceanography.

Although this is her first time teaching, Natunewicz says her work at UD gave her the background she needed to make the transition from student to professor. As a graduate student, she presented numerous lectures and seminars, both in class and at conferences, making it relatively easy to adjust to the front of the classroom, she says.

"The faculty were friendly and accessible," Natunewicz says of the College of Marine Studies (CMS). "I felt comfortable asking for help and advice from professors, not only in my immediate research area but throughout CMS."

In fact, she says, this remains true today. Faculty members in the College still help out if she calls with a question.

As for the future, she says she plans to continue her laboratory and field research and hopes to continue teaching midshipmen, known familiarly as "mids," and to have an impact on their lives.

"The mids have the unique opportunity of spending a lot of time at sea after they graduate from the academy," Natunewicz says. "The more they learn about the life in the ocean as undergraduates, the more likely they are to act as environmental stewards when they are leaders in the fleet."

--Kari K. Gulbrandsen, EG '91M