Pictured are DENIN Environmental Fellows winners (from left) Mahfuzur Khan, Jean Brodeur, Kelsea Schumacher and Audrey Gamble.

Environmental fellows

Four UD graduate students receive two-year fellowships from DENIN

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1:57 p.m., Sept. 19, 2014--The Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) has announced its first cohort of DENIN Environmental Fellows. The new fellowship program assists doctoral students whose research interests demonstrate a clear bridge between science and society.

The four recipients were selected based on their proposals for doctoral research that will benefit the environment in Delaware and beyond, as well as their demonstrated experience and commitment to communicating and transferring the benefits of their research to the wider world.

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In addition to carrying out independent research, the DENIN Fellows will function as a team for the two years of their fellowship, working together in ways that complement their primary academic programs. The fellows will participate in and lead a select number of DENIN events and activities each year, including symposia and seminar series.

According to Jeanette Miller, associate director of DENIN, the field of 24 applicants was highly competitive. 

“We’re extremely confident that these DENIN fellows will become decision makers and leaders in the future,” she said. “We hope to provide the new fellows with professional development opportunities and an opportunity to lead events that will be meaningful to the community.”

The research focus areas of the DENIN Fellows for 2014-16 include both environmental science and policy:

Jean Brodeur, originally from Connecticut, received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Southern California in international relations and is currently a marine science and policy Ph.D. student. As a former Washington, D.C., lobbyist who has returned to school in order to learn more about oceanography, she knows the importance of scientists and policy makers working together to create positive environmental change. Brodeur’s research focuses on the intersection between ocean acidification chemistry and policy. 

Audrey V. Gamble is a Ph.D. student in the environmental soil chemistry program at UD. Originally from Headland, Alabama, she received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry as well as her master’s in crop, soil and environmental sciences from Auburn University. Gamble is interested in research that connects agricultural practices to their environmental implications. She is currently seeking to understand the chemistry of phosphorous retention and transport in soils from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

Mahfuzur Khan, from Jamalpur, Bangladesh, received both his bachelor’s and masters’ degrees from the University of Dhaka. He is currently a Ph.D. student in geological sciences at UD. Khan’s research revolves around arsenic contamination in groundwater and river deltas. He is interested in the sustainability of deep groundwater in Bangladesh as an arsenic-safe water source as well as the management of highly seasonal cross-regional and international river basins. Specifically, he has been studying in the Bengal delta in Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated regions in the world. 

Kelsea Schumacher, a student in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, is originally from Bend, Oregon. She has a bachelor of science degree in environmental engineering and a master’s in civil engineering from Oregon State University. Her Ph.D. research aims to determine the capabilities and capacity of the U.S. electronic waste recycling infrastructure, so that effective industry and policy measures can be designed to increase collection for recycling and close the loop on the lifecycle of electronic products.

About DENIN

The Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), founded at the University of Delaware in 2009, is an interdisciplinary incubator of research, knowledge and solutions specifically dedicated to safeguarding the environment and addressing environmental issues. 

DENIN provides academic, government and industrial partners broad access to experts from multiple disciplines in a collaborative effort to advance environmental science, promote environmental education and devise innovative, multidimensional strategies for environmental sustainability. 

Article by Allison Lane

Photo by Evan Krape

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