Congratulations to graduate student Samm Newton, who has received the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship from Sea Grant and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Knauss Fellowship provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. Newton will be part of the 2022 cohort of highly qualified graduate students to be placed with “hosts” in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid fellowship.
Newton says, “I have always desired to more deeply understand the interface between humans and marine systems and the processes that connect us. The intention behind both my creative and scholarly practice is to inspire others to see the oceans with a reinvigorated intensity, and deeper sense of history and place. I plan to continue looking at the intersection between marine systems, environmental science, and coastal communities while at UW-Madison by studying offshore drilling and petrochemical culture in the Gulf of Mexico and abroad.”
Newton’s creative and artistic work, sponsored by an NSF grant, has also recently been exhibited in the Bermuda National Gallery. Between 2017 and 2019 the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) worked with Samm Newton as part of an on-ongoing research project into pteropods (a type of ocean-dwelling snail) and copepods (tiny aquatic crustaceans). “Recognizing that art and science are two parts of the same human drive to know and to understand, this exhibition presents the artworks produced for the project and reminds us how art can be used to more deeply appreciate our place on this planet and the processes that connect each of us to it.”
Read the full fellowship announcement at NOAA and Sea Grant.