URI Marine Science Graduates: World Class and Worldwide

David Bengtson, Associate Professor
Fisheries, Animal, & Veterinary Science

David Bengtson earned both an MS in zoology (1974) and a PhD in biological sciences (1982) from URI. Bengtson teaches aquaculture courses and conducts research in summer flounder aquaculture.

This issue of Maritimes may look a little different to the dedicated readership accustomed to issues devoted to research themes. In this issue, we have highlighted not the world-class research going on at the University of Rhode Island (URI), but the world-class and worldwide activities being carried out by URI graduates in the marine and environmental arena. The 16 invited contributors, URI graduates from the 1950s to the 1990s, describe what they are doing, the various routes by which they traveled from URI to their positions, and how their URI training prepared them for careers in the real world. In many cases, they give direct and valuable advice to today's students who, I hope, will be encouraged to put this issue on their "must read" list. One of the underlying themes in many of the articles is that success in the workplace depends not just on solid technical skills, but on the ability to solve problems, to communicate well, and to work effectively with other people-skills we continually try to impart to our students.
     As I read the articles submitted for this issue, I am impressed by many things: the breadth of disciplines in which our graduates work, their global distribution, their commitment to making their own individual contributions to the betterment of the world, and their fond memories of URI. If you ever doubted that URI has an enormous impact in marine and environmental sciences around the world, a quick read through this issue will rid you of those doubts. The thing that has amazed me the most, quite frankly, is the ease with which the contributors could be identified and the issue put together (a special thanks here to Jackleen de La Harpe and Holly Turton). There was no "Gee, who can we get to write about that area?" Rather, the question was always "How in the world are we going to choose among all the excellent candidates?" In other words, many more individual stories can be told. If you like the concept of this issue and want to be further impressed by more of our graduates, please let Dean Margaret Leinen know. For now, I hope you will enjoy the issue. If you're a fellow alum or faculty member, you may get an answer to "I wonder whatever happened to..." If you're a student, use this as a starting point for your own imagination. If you're one of the many friends of URI's marine and environmental programs, I hope this issue will remind you why that friendship is important to you and to us. To all the contributors, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, and thank you especially for representing URI so well around the world.