The 2009 class of nine NOAA''s Fisheries Service/Sea Grant fellowships is the largest in the history of the program.
Among the multi-year doctoral fellows, seven are studying population dynamics and two are studying marine resource economics.
“NOAA established this unique graduate fellowship program in 1999 to focus on changes in fish populations, what influences those changes, and what drives marine resource economics. Training and recruiting candidates in these highly specialised disciplines is important to NOAA's Fisheries Service and to the National Sea Grant Program,” said Leon Cammen, Director of NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program.
Population dynamics is the study of fish populations as affected by fishing mortality, growth, recruitment and natural mortality. Marine resource economics focuses on the valuation of fishery resources, fishers and policy choices.
The full list of those selected for the fellowships can be found on NOAA's website.
The goals of the NOAA Fisheries /Sea Grant Fellowship Program are:
• To encourage qualified applicants to pursue careers in population dynamics and stock assessment or in marine resource economics
• To increase available expertise related to these fields
• To foster closer relationships between academic scientists and NOAA Fisheries
• To provide real-world experience to graduate students and accelerate their career development.
Since 1999, the NOAA Fisheries/Sea Grant graduate fellowship program has awarded a total of 54 fellowships. Each fellowship award is in the form of a cooperative agreement between NOAA's Fisheries Service and the Sea Grant university/college of $38,500 per year.
