Diving deep into research

In the next couple of months, marine biology junior Cassandra Rodriguez will begin her journey as a research assistant.

“All my life it was something that always interested me,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve always been interested in learning new things about any kind of species, not just necessarily marine life but, like, land life as well.”

Rodriguez previously was a biology major with a concentration in pre-medicine, but she did not feel a passion for it.

“I realize that the ocean is vast, it’s enormous and there’s still so much to learn a lot from it,” she said. “There’s so many unknown and that really sparked an interest.”

Her future assistantship is funded by a $15.4 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shared by UTRGV and five other universities.

Rodriguez said she still does not know what kind of research she will be involved in but will work with David Hicks, a professor and director of the School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences, to decide in the upcoming weeks.

The Center for Coastal and Marine Ecosystems grant trains minority students in NOAA-related fields, Hicks said. The grant is led by Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Also sharing the grant are Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., California State University in Monterrey Bay, Jackson State University in Mississippi and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

UTRGV will receive a total of $2,268,422 from the grant over five years.

“The nice thing about it is, as far as the research projects, it’s almost wide open, as long as the research project has some relevance to the goals of NOAA,” Hicks said.

Working with Hicks as co-principal investigators are Associate Professors Carlos Cintra and John Breier, Assistant Professor Alejandro Cabo and political science Assistant Professor Owen Temby.

Research projects can fall under three NOAA priorities: place-based conservation, coastal resilience and coastal intelligence.

“[Placed-based conservation] encompasses research that’s focused on improving specific locations,” Breier said. “That approach is supposed to take both the specifics of the location, the actual science of the location, plus the goals of the community in mind to work together.”

Coastal intelligence relates to the gathering of data in research and how that data can be used for projects, he explained.

Hicks said coastal resilience is “how coastal communities can plan to quickly rebound economically and, for example, from events that happen on the coast.”

This research can help in the early detection these events, such as hurricanes.

The School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences is recruiting students to participate in the research.

“We have six graduate student positions funded per year and five undergraduate positions granted per year,” Hicks said. “We’d like to get the [graduate] students done in two years, but NOAA will allow us to continue them to three. … I think the undergraduate is for four years, but we plan to recruit them as juniors and seniors.”

Graduate students receive a stipend of $16,500 per year, a scholarship of $6,520 per year, and $1,980 for travel expenses. They have access to an additional $5,000 per year to visit a NOAA research facility and work with NOAA scientists.

Each undergraduate is given a stipend of $7,700 per year, a scholarship of $2,860 per year and $1,440 for travel and research supplies.

Preference is given to marine biology majors, but all majors are encouraged to apply for the research grant opportunity. For more information, email Hicks at david.hicks@utrgv.edu.