Press Releases

May 03, 2002
Southampton College and Stony Brook University Form Dual Marine Science Program

Accelerated Master's Program Aims to Keep More Young Researchers Here on LI

Contact:
Darren Johnson (PR@southampton.liu.edu)
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

Stony Brook, NY - Southampton College of Long Island University and Stony Brook University have formed a partnership for a dual degree program designed to insure that the area's best young marine scientists continue to work in local waters. In a ceremony on April 30, Long Island University President David J. Steinberg and Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny, along with Marine Science professors and students, celebrated the new dual program. Both Universities are widely recognized as leading institutions in the fields of Marine Science.

"This unusual partnership between a major public university and a major private university will offer students the best of both institutions and make Long Island a focal point for the education and training of future marine scientists," said Dr. Steinberg.

The new dual program is designed as a fast-track option to provide students with a combination of coursework and research experience that will lead to a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science from Southampton College of Long Island University and a Master of Science in Marine Environmental Science from Stony Brook University.

Under the terms of the agreement signed today, Southampton students will complete their undergraduate degree at the College. Beginning in their junior year, they may be pre-admitted to Stony Brook's graduate degree program and begin tailoring their schedules to their future graduate work.

Through the partnership, students in Southampton College's highly selective and world-renowned undergraduate marine science program, which has produced 33 Fulbright Scholars in the past 27 years, will be able to work towards an accelerated M.S. in Marine Environmental Science degree by taking courses and/or participating in research projects at Stony Brook while completing their undergraduate degree at Southampton College. The work undertaken at Stony Brook may be credited toward a master's degree there, allowing students in the program to complete both degrees in an abbreviated time period.

Southampton College Marine Science Professor Chris Gobler, who earned his Ph.D. at Stony Brook, said that this partnership enhances and formalizes the longstanding relationship between the two schools. "This is a terrific way for our best students to get a high quality bachelor's degree at Southampton and an accelerated master's degree at Stony Brook," Gobler said. "Stony Brook's Marine Science graduate program is one of the best in the country."

Students will benefit from the strong undergraduate marine science program at Southampton and the renowned research facilities and expertise offered by the graduate program of the Marine Sciences Research Center (MSRC) at Stony Brook. The dual program is also expected to further develop relationships in other areas of research, including more co-sponsored studies between professors and students at the two institutions, especially studies that focus on preserving the fragile ecosystems of Long Island waters.

While students in the dual program also will participate in research that is national and international in scope, about half of the marine science research at the two institutions is locally based. The partnership could expand that. "I can think of no field that is more appropriate for such an agreement. We, on Long Island, are surrounded by the marine environment," said Marvin Geller, Dean of Stony Brook's Marine Sciences Research Center. "Setting up this type of cooperative agreement will serve to train more bright students to explore these environments, to better understand them, and hopefully to find paths to having a better Long Island."

Unofficially, the two programs have collaborated for many years. Most recently, Nathan Buck, a graduate of Southampton's Marine Science Program, who began his research on Long Island Sound as an undergraduate at the College, has continued his study as a graduate student at Stony Brook. The research is aimed at establishing levels of toxic trace metals in the Sound.

"This dual program offers great promise," Gobler said. "Not only will the students and professors benefit, but so will the local environment. Keeping some of our brightest young researchers here working in local waters they already know and care about will be a tremendous plus for Long Island."