It’s a wrap, folks
A huge congratulations to four of our students in the environmental engineering sciences department on successfully defending their dissertations and becoming Dr. Hallie Fishman, Dr. Sara Swaminathan and Dr. Sydney Williams and to Yvanna Serra, for successfully defending her master’s thesis! What an incredible culmination of these students’ hard work, ingenuity, tenacity and grit.
Take Hallie, for example, who mapped 79 million oysters and moved 120,000 mussels for an experiment. Name the challenge and she is up for it! Or Sydney, a relentless problem solver and critical thinker who cares deeply about the natural world. Sara’s grit and sense of humor never waver — whether she’s slogging through really long days in the field or pulling all-nighters in the lab. And Yvanna’s can-do attitude, determination, and insights will take her far as she takes the next step in her academic career as a PhD student at Boston University!
As their advisors and mentors, it’s been truly an honor to travel alongside them on their journeys and we will feel immense pride sitting in the audience watching this momentous event unfold for our students! While they made it look easy, we know what it took for them to get here–countless hours of field work, analyzing data, attending classes, studying for exams, and overcoming other hurdles, professional and personal, along the way.
These four talented young women are already using their knowledge and skills to solve major problems and make a difference in people’s lives — and will be taking on exciting new challenges as they launch their careers. It’s these moments that highlight for us the importance of what we do as faculty and our passion for guiding the next generation of top scientists and engineers, while also learning from them.
We are thrilled that the Center for Coastal Solutions plays an important role in UF’s mission and is a growing part of many students’ academic journeys from across campus. We look forward to creating many more opportunities for students, inside and outside of the university.
We thank all who stood behind our students, including friends, families, colleagues, and the sponsors who provided financial support and professional growth opportunities. Your support makes a huge difference in our students’ lives. Thank you all for helping make this moment possible for Drs Fischman, Swaminathan and Williams, and Ms. Serra. You can read about these incredible students’ stories in this edition of Coastal Edges.
Go gators!
Christine Angelini, Andrew Altieri and David Kaplan
Center for Coastal Solutions