12:19 p.m., Jan. 23, 2009----Three University of Delaware College of Marine and Earth Studies (CMES) students were recognized for their presentations at the 3rd Delaware Estuary Science and Environmental Summit, held by the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Jan. 11-14 in Cape May, N.J. The winners were:

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Best Student Talk Award - Jennifer Halchak, marine biosciences master's student, “Getting to the root of salinized bayside farmland management”

Outstanding Student Talk Award - Kelley Appleman, marine policy doctoral candidate, “Measuring the recreational use value of migratory shorebirds in the Delaware Estuary”

Best Student Poster Award - Rebecca Hays, oceanography doctoral student, “Eulerian sampling of marsh effluents for the determination of nutrient exchange between the Murderkill Estuary and adjacent salt marshes” (Hays and Villanova University biology student Tanja Prsa tied for this award).

Halchak called the conference “motivating” and said that attending the event was a great experience because it gave her an opportunity to see all the research being conducted around the Delaware Estuary. It also marked the first time she gave an oral presentation at a conference.

“The experience was nerve-wracking but wonderful,” she said. “I will be defending my master's thesis this summer, so it was great timing to have this experience.”

More than 30 judges reviewed the work of 23 students to choose the winners. Organizers of the biennial conference said they included student presentation awards in the event to “recognize the important contributions that students make to the environmental sector in the watershed.” The summit itself was aimed at providing a venue in which more than 200 scientists, resource managers, and environmentalists could share their work in the context of the event's theme: “Planning for Tomorrow's Delaware Estuary.”

Award winners will receive a certificate of excellence, an invitation to contribute a feature article on their research to a future issue of the Partnership's newsletter, and acknowledgement in the conference proceedings and website.

For more about CMES, visit the Web site.

To learn more about Delaware Sea Grant, visit the Web site.

Article by Elizabeth Boyle