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Press Releases | |
May 21, 1999
Christie Klimas of Seville, OH, Wins Udall Scholarship for Environmental Studies"New Breed of Scientist" and Former Biosphere Student is College's 2nd Udall Scholar
Contact:
Joe Dionisio
(516) 287 8313
Fax: (516) 283 4081Southampton, NY -- Christie A. Klimas of Seville, Ohio, a junior Environmental Biology major at Southampton College of Long Island University, has won a $5,000 Morris K. Udall Scholarship to support her goal of a career in environmental public policy.
This semester, Klimas is researching global climate change at Duke University's Nicholas School for the Environment, a field station of Brookhaven National Laboratory that has generated international attention. Her internship was arranged by her advisor, Dr. Robert Danziger.
Klimas-- the daughter of Sheila and Kenneth John Klimas of Seville, OH-- is the second student in Southampton College history to win the Udall honor, and one of 200 undergraduate students in the nation.
Whether in the U.S. or a third-world country, Klimas says her aim is to become "a new breed of scientist, one who is trained in both (research and policy) and understands the economic, political and social benefits of a situation, as well as environmental concerns."
Southampton College's emphasis on hands-on education provided Klimas with numerous experiential learning opportunities arranged by her professors, advisors, and the Cooperative Education and Career Development Center. When she graduates in May 2000, she will be well-prepared to achieve her goal of becoming a guardian of the world's ecology.
"Christie wants to have a definite and immediate impact on environmental issues," said Dr. Danziger , Southampton College's Udall Faculty representative. "I have no doubt she will become an articulate and significant force in helping shape future public policy in the United States."
The Udall Foundation (http://udallfoundation.org), founded by Congress in 1992 to honor the Arizona Congressman who died in 1998, chooses students based on academic performance and commitment to an environmental career. Chief among Udall's achievements was the Alaska Lands Act of 1980, which doubled the size of the national park system, and tripled that of the national wilderness system.
Klimas' most notable ecological endeavor came in 1998, when she was one of 50 college students accepted to the Biosphere 2 Center in Arizona. Inside the 91-foot-high glass-and-steel bubble, which opened in 1991 with a controversial experiment in human enclosure, she studied global climate change and biological diversity. People are no longer sealed inside the bubble.
"Biosphere was awesome," said Klimas, whose research project allowed her to scuba dive in a 70-degree "Caribbean" reef. "The research was so valuable because you got so much experience with techniques, like using an underwater video camera."
Klimas' other experiential studies in the environmental field are also impressive.
In 1998, she trekked to Barrow, Alaska for a National Science Foundation study. There, at the most northern point in the U.S., she worked on a botanical investigation aimed at forecasting the response of Arctic Tundra to climate change.
That summer in Barrow, Klimas also was a volunteer at a drug rehabilitation center for the native Inupiat population. In the snow-covered region, she witnessed whales being dragged out of the water by bulldozers, people hunting caribou with 4-wheel drive vehicles, and natives adding junk food to their diet of muktuk (whale meat).
"I began to see some of the sorrow underlying the ice," said Klimas. "What most disturbed me was that western civilization had brought all the benefits of technology into the arctic without the guidelines and attitude for its proper use."
In Fall 1997, in conjunction with the Pacific Whale Foundation and Southampton College psychobiology professor Paul Forestell, she coordinated a catalog of Humpback whale photos.
In Summer 1997, during an internship at the oceanarium at Mount Desert Island, Maine, she studied moon snails, horseshoe crabs and other fish.
Klimas, who graduated from Medina (Ohio) Senior High School with a 99.9 average in 1996, also is an avid photographer and scuba diver. After graduating in 2000, she plans to pursue a Master's in Environmental Management-- a combined degree in policy and science.
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