Appendix 4. During this period our students have published 199 peer-reviewed papers, and a number of
students have also won awards for their work. For example, 21 students received recognition for the
quality of their presentations at scientific meetings, including the Society for Integrative and Comparative
Biology, the American Fisheries Society, the International Society of Protistologists, the World Seabird
Conference, the International Sea Turtle symposium, and the Biennial Conference on the Biology of
Marine Mammals.
During the review period, 147 students have received external fellowships and awards, or UNCW
scholarships and travel awards. In addition, 70 graduate students received extramural or intramural grant
funding from a variety of organizations, including NSF, Sigma-Xi, Lerner-Gray, NC Seagrant and NOAA.
Our students also take on leadership roles within their scientific community. For example, Christy Visaggi
served as a mentor for the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates in Biodiversity Conservation at
UNCW; Jessica Lisa was the Environmental Editor for Carolina Surf Magazine; Kalman Bugica was an
instructor for the Duke University Talent Identification Program in Near Shore and Ocean Marine Biology
at the Duke University Marine Laboratory; Micah Marty taught a winter field course on Coral Reef
Ecology in Bocas del Toro, Panama at the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation; Carly Randall
worked for the UNCW Marine Quest program; Anne-Marie Hodge was invited to write a feature guest
post for Scientific American’s official blog; Julie Campbell presented her research to the NC General
Assembly in Raleigh for the 2011 Graduate Education Week; and many of our students performed
volunteer work as Science Fair and Science Olympiad judges, among other service activities.
Importantly, many of our graduate students have demonstrated exemplary performance as teaching
assistants. The majority of the department’s TAs regularly received student evaluation scores above the
university and the departmental averages. In the past seven years, six of our students have received
graduate teaching awards, including the University Teaching Excellence Award, the highest honor
graduate student teachers can attain at UNCW.
This partial list of achievements demonstrates that our graduate students are active in their science
and teaching, and in service to their academic and broader communities. They also complete their work in
a timely manner. During the past two review periods, the median time to graduation for our M.S. students
has been 2.5 years (Figure 5). For our Ph.D. students who will have graduated by summer 2014 , the mean
time to graduation is 4.8 years. We have also enjoyed a high degree of success in placing the graduates of
our programs in both jobs in their fields (within and outside of North Carolina) and in Ph.D. programs
(Figure 6). Since our Ph.D. program is relatively new (first graduate in 2006), most of our graduates
during the review period are still in post-doctoral positions. However, a number of our recent graduates
have acquired permanent positions in their field, including:
Dr. Mike Polito, Assistant Professor, Louisana State University
Dr. Kristin Hardy, Assistant Professor, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Dr. Tim Henkel, Assistant Professor, Valdosta State University
Dr. Pedro Medina Rosas, Assistant Professor, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
Dr. Virginia Winder, Assistant Professor, Benedictine College
Dr. Carlos Zavalaga, Assistant Professor, Universidad Cientifica del Sur, Lima
Dr. Christy Visaggi, Lecturer, Georgia State University
Dr. Amanda Kahn, Lecturer, UNCW
Dr. Carolina Priester, Lecturer, UNCW
Dr. Erin Fougeres, Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator, NOAA Fisheries
We are also pleased with the high retention rates of our students, which is 95 % for our M.S.
students for the past 5 years and 94% for our Ph.D. students from 2008- 2014.