Audrey Seiz, of Portland, named Marsh-Mosakowski NOAA fellow at Clark University

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Audrey Seiz of Clark University

WORCESTER, MA (07/16/2012)(readMedia)-- Clark University student Audrey C. Seiz, of Portland, Maine, is spending the summer conducting research at the James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory on the New Jersey coast, thanks to a partnership between two Clark institutes and the federal agency charged with watching over the health of our skies and oceans.

Seiz is one of just five students selected by the George Perkins Marsh Institute and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise as the first Marsh-Mosakowski NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fellows. The program includes generous summer research stipends.

"I look forward to working with a new group of scientists and mentors, and I also anticipate learning a great deal about the topic of ocean acidification as it relates to fish development," Seiz said. Her research project is titled, "Climate Change Effects on Fish Early Life Processes."

A biology major who is entering her senior at Clark, Seiz traveled to Alaska in June 2011, assisting in stickleback field collection and research as part of the Foster-Baker Lab of Clark's biology department. Her faculty mentor is Professor John Baker.

At a spring-semester reception for the new fellows, Mosakowski Institute Director Jim Gomes noted that their work illustrates the perfect union of research and practice. The partnership, he said, was the result partly of a visit to Clark last year by top NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, who spoke about strides that have been made, as well as the ongoing challenges, in developing a sustainable future.

Professor Robert Johnston, director of the Marsh Institute, said the NOAA partnership links Clark students with scientists and peer-to-peer researchers from around the country. Johnston noted the program is emblematic of the University's adoption of Liberal Education and Effective Practice, which deepens students' education by combining classroom learning with real-world engagement. "This is the sort of thing that LEEP is all about," he said.

Seiz majors in biology at Clark, where she is a Dean's List student, Traina Scholar and LEEP Pioneer. She is active with the Tennis Club and is an educator with CHOICES, an on-campus peer sexual health resource organization.

Seiz is a 2009 graduate of Portland High School.

Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a small, liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark's pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark's faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to contemporary challenges in the areas of psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University's motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.