News

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• Graduate student Aubree Jones (BS Texas A&M Galveston) has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2019).
• Dawn Parry (BS MBio, 2019) received Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She completed her Honors Thesis (mentored by Dr. Webb) based on the work she did at NMFS-Woods Hole as a NOAA Hollings Scholar. She is now at Cornell University doing her PhD on whale bioacoustics with full fellowship support from Cornell.
• Dr. Webb was named Finalist for the 2019 URI Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching.
• Dr. Webb became a member of the SEA Education Association Board of Trustees, and is now Chair of its Education Committee (2019).
• Collaborative paper with the Albertson Lab (UMass-Amherst) on the genetic and developmental basis for a novelty in cichlids  published in US Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.(www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1719798115)
• Paper by Webb and Ramsay (2017) selected by Copeia as Best Paper in Ichthyology for 2017 – Webb JF and Ramsay J. 2017. A new interpretation of the 3-D configuration of lateral line scales and the lateral line canal contained within them. Copeia. 105(2): 339-347. DOI: 10.1643/CG-17-601. 
• Former PhD student, Dr. Margot Schwalbe (in photo) accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Lake Forest College (IL) (2018).
• MS student Ashley Marranzino won the 2016 ASIH Stoye Award in Genetics, Development and Morphology (best student presentation) awarded by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists at its 2016 annual meeting. This work has been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
• Dr. Webb was appointed as the first George and Barbara Young Chair in Biology (2016), the first endowed chair in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences at URI. See article HERE.
• MS student Julia Johnstone received Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2016).
• New NSF Grant – The Role of Larval Orientation Behavior in Determining Population Connectivity – in collaboration with PM Buston, J Atema (Boston University) and CB Paris (U. Miami). 1459546 (2015 – 2019)
• Bird and Webb (2014) designated as“Highly Accessed” by EvoDevo – Bird, NC and Webb, JF. 2014. Heterochrony, modularity, and the functional evolution of the lateral line system. EvoDevo 2014, 5:21. DOI: 10.1186/2041-9139-5-21. Full text. 
• Post-Doc, Dr. Nathan Bird (http://www.uni.edu/biology/dr-nathan-bird) is now Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Northe

Outreach

2020 – Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS). Co-chair of annual symposium (Jones)
2019-Pres. – Cientifico Latino Mentorship Program. Remote mentoring of first generation students from underrepresented communities re: NSF GRFP applications and graduate school program search and applications (Jones)
2019 – URI SMILE program – Comparative anatomy and microscopy demonstration/activity for the Paul Cuffee School (Providence, RI). (Jones)
2018-Pres. – Illinois Science & Technology Institute – On-line mentorship of HS students on AP Research projects in Chicago area public schools (Jones)
2018 – Women in Science Day at Mystic Aquarium – Presented interactive “Five Senses of Fishes” activity to K-12 students (Jones).
2018 – Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS) – conference organization (Nickles)
2018 – Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS) Annual Conference – Workshop on choosing titles for papers (Webb).
2018 – Women in Science Day at Mystic Aquarium – with the Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS) (Nickles, Jones, Molnar).  
2018 – Graduate School of Oceanography Open House (Webb, Jones, Molnar)

2017 – Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS) – CV Workshop (Webb)
2016 – GRRL Tech Workshop (March; graduate student Andrea Schlunk)
2016 – Operation Smile at URI (March; graduate student/GRFP Fellow Ashley Marranzino)
2016 – E/V Nautilus Science Internship (graduate student/GRFP Fellow Ashley Marranzino)
2016 – R/V Endeavor 40^th Anniversary Open House, GSO/URI (Webb and students)
2015-Pres. – Graduate students Ashley Marranzino and Andrea Schlunk contribute articles to OceanBites (oceanbites.org), a website sponsored by URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography, which makes cutting edge research accessible to all by explaining the scientific literature in oceanography. For examples, see: http://oceanbites.org/author/amarranzino/ and http://oceanbites.org/author/aschlunk/.
2015 – Save the Bay Aquarium Volunteer – Graduate Student Ashley Marranzino
2014 – Job Shadowing in Webb Lab, two students from Narragansett Middle School (post-doc Nathan Bird, and grad students Lauren Carter, Ashley Marranzino)
2014 – Instructor, Narragansett Bay Classroom (grad students Ashley Marranzino, Lauren Carter)
2014 – Poster session at NEOSEC (2014 Ocean Literacy Summit), Woods Hole. Ashley Marranzino presented MS work on lateral line system of deep sea fishes; publicized URI marine-related programs
2014 – Presentation on Marine Biology Program for delegation from KNUST in Ghana 

2012 – Exploration Zone, America’s Cup Science Exhibition, staffed Touch It Tank