Three Texas A&M Galveston Graduate Students Awarded

Three graduate students from Texas A&M University at Galveston will share $22,048 in research funding for one-year grants with nine other students from the Texas A&M University System starting June 1, from the Texas Sea Grant College Program at Texas A&M University.  All the students were awarded amounts ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 after a rigorous review process.

The funds are awarded through Texas Sea Grant’s Grants-in-Aid of Graduate Research Program, which is intended to promote scientific excellence and achievement by providing small grants to graduate students enrolled at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) or Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) whose marine- or coastal-related research in any field of study is relevant to Texas, though not necessarily based in Texas.

“Texas Sea Grant’s Grants-In-Aid of Graduate Research Program supports students in their early research career as they develop their research skills and learn the way to fund that research – grant proposal writing,” said Mia Zwolinski, Texas Sea Grant’s Research Coordinator. “They become more proficient in the proposal process, including finding funding opportunities and ensuring their applications are compliant with proposal guidelines.  With mentorship from their faculty advisors, the students learn how to translate research needs into a competitive proposal narrative and develop a budget to support the project.”

The students, from Texas A&M Galveston and the titles of their projects are:

Patricia Faulkner, master’s degree student in marine biology at TAMUG: “Physiological effects of salinity stress in juvenile American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)”

Yui Matsumoto, doctoral student in marine biology at TAMUG: “The immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii): Model system for aging, regeneration, and cellular plasticity”

Andrew Pekowski, doctoral student in oceanography at TAMUG: “Estimating rates of subsidence using sedimentation over the Trinity River incised valley, Galveston Bay, Texas”