A Message from the Dean Welcome to the Spring semester! We are very pleased to report that several of the graduate programs at URI have been ranked among the best in the nation (National Research Council). We are also happy to note that the number of applications and enrollments at the Graduate School is on the rise. It is very exciting to see the number of graduate students who are seeking out and applying to our graduate programs rise so dramatically. Total new enrollment in our graduate programs has risen by 18% since 2008 while the number of applications has increased by 26%. We have seen a large increase in foreign graduate degree-seeking students as well as domestic, both out-of-state and local. The influx of students from all walks of life, especially our foreign students, has really enhanced the cultural and global perspective of the campus and student body. Many reasons have been noted as to the increase in numbers including a newly updated and well maintained website, which receives over 500 hits per day. We have also added a number of impressive new personnel in the technology and recruitment fields who are available everyday to help students. Adoption of a unified branding system as well as the development of closer working relationships with individual departments were also cited as reasons for our success. Provost DeHayes also deserves a great deal of credit for the current successes of the Graduate School as his support and resource allocations have been invaluable to our growth. It is very gratifying to be a part of the rapid and successful growth of a graduate school that is and will continue to be instrumental in cutting-edge research as well as state, national and global economic growth.

Graduate Accolades

Tiffany Smythe, a doctoral student in Marine Affairs has been named URI's first Coastal Institute Graduate Fellow. The fellowship provides Smythe with a $3,000 stipend to use towards her education and research expenses, as well as opportunities to participate in special events sponsored by the Coastal Institute.

Maryjo Brounce, a Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Oceanography, was a shipboard scientist aboard the Japanese R/V Yokosuka on cruise YK10-12. This was a 14-day cruise that examined the seafloor geology in the Philippine Sea. The R/V Yokosuka is the mothership for the Japanese deep submersible, Shinkai 6500. Brounce had the opportunity to dive in the Shinkai as the scientist observer on dive 6K#1236. They dove to 5500 meters below the sea surface and brought back greater than 200 pounds of rock samples that make up the upper mantle and lower crust in the Earth's interior. Their exposure at the sea floor surface in the Philippine Sea makes the area ideal for scientists to learn about the Earth's interior and plate tectonic processes.

Vijay More, a 4th year graduate student in the College of Pharmacy working with Dr. Angela Slitt, won 2nd prize for a poster presentation at the North East Society of Toxicology (NESOT) Fall 2010 meeting at University of Connecticut. The poster was titled "Differential hepatic and intestinal phase-II biotransformation enzyme/ transporter expression and Bisphenol-A disposition in mouse models of obesity and diabetes" and earned a $500 prize. More was also awarded Graduate Student travel support from Society of Toxicology (SOT), as well as the Colgate-Palmolive Student Award for Research in Alternative Methods at the SOT 50th National Meeting, to be held at Washington DC in March 2011.

Bogdan Prokopovych, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Business Administration is the recipient of an exceptionally prestigious Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Prokopovych was recognized during a reception on January 8, 2011 at the Allied Social Science Association/American Economic Association annual meetings in Denver.

Matthew J. Quilitzsch (30) and Tara N. Quilitzsch (25) got married on January 9, 2010 at 11:00 am in Rumford, RI at Colonial Baptist Church. Matt and Tara are both students in the Graduate School of Library and Information Services (GSLIS) pursuing an MLIS (Masters of Library and Information Services

Alumni News

Michelle Pelletier, who earned her master's degree in Chemical Engineering last summer, was named 'trendsetter' by Public Works magazine for research on self-healing concrete.

Ivan Mateo (Ph.D. in Environmental Science; graduated 2009) began employment in September 2010 with the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) in Gloucester, MA.

Carrie Byron (Ph.D. in Environmental Science; graduated 2010) is now a post-doctoral fellow with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Byron presented her work at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Annual Science Conference in Nantes, France, Sep 20 - 24, 2010 and at Aquaculture Europe, Porto, Portugal, October 5 - 8, 2010.

Annie Cox (Ph.D. in Oceanography; defended December 2010) started in January 2011 a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla, San Diego.