As marine superintendent of BIOS’s 170-foot research vessel Atlantic Explorer, Ron Harelstad is responsible for planning and scheduling when and where the ship is used, identifying new ship users, budgets, regulatory compliance, and personnel management. In addition, Harelstad manages four National Science Foundation grants that provide financial support of the vessel.
The 5th Annual Groundswell Lionfish Tournament took place at BIOS on July 18, and saw the tournament kicking off at sunup and boats heading in to the BIOS dock for the 3.00pm weigh-in. See story and photos at Bernews.com.
Two new underwater gliders arrived at BIOS in mid July and are expected to be gathering data in the waters around Bermuda by the end of the summer. The gliders, each resembling a 6-foot-long airplane, operate on battery power at sea with direction from land-based researchers while carrying a payload of sensors that measure ocean properties such as salinity, temperature, oxygen, nutrients, and currents.
For many students, especially during their undergraduate college years, the difference between thinking about potential careers and knowing what career they want to pursue boils down to one thing: experience.
The PartnerRe “Dollars for Hours: Youth & Community in Partnership” program recently celebrated its eighth year of matching students from local schools with local charities to work on a variety of community projects. Under this unique partnership, each participating school receives $30,000 to be put toward classroom upgrades, scholarship funds, IT equipment, and other infrastructure projects and student support programs.
Since the inception of the Bermuda Program in 1976, more than 150 young Bermudians have taken part in the annual summer internship at BIOS, and many apply their experiences toward university studies in science, as well as science-based careers.
A former intern with BIOS’s Bermuda Program had his research on rain and flooding events in Bermuda selected last month for publication in a British meteorology journal. Michael Johnston’s paper appeared online January 18 with the Royal Meteorological Society, a professional group focused on weather and climate.
Successful scientific research is rarely a one-person endeavor, particularly when the research is interdisciplinary in nature, or requires field or laboratory investigations in multiple environments. The collaborative nature of modern ocean science research is evident in a recent publication in Science Advances, the peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Three students who have worked as interns with BIOS microbiologist Rachel Parsons since 2016 will present their research findings this month at the Ocean Sciences meeting in Portland, Oregon.