UW-Madison Student Wins Knauss Fellowship
By John Karl
MADISON, Wis. (12/18/98) — A University of Wisconsin Sea Grant-sponsored student is among 30 nationwide to be awarded a Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship for 1999.
Jeffrey J. Ripp of Sun Prairie, Wis., competed against a field of 55 applicants sponsored by Sea Grant programs at universities throughout the United States, according to UW Sea Grant Institute Education Coordinator Mary Lou Reeb.
Ripp, a 1998 M.S. graduate of the UW-Madison Water Resources Management Program, will intern in Washington, D.C., for the Committee on Resources of the U.S. House of Representatives. During the year-long fellowship, Ripp will conduct background research on marine policy, including coastal and fishery issues, and the re-authorization of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
"I’m looking forward to learning how the federal government works," Ripp said. "From our vantage point here in Wisconsin, it can seem like a big black box. I think I’ll learn what inside-the-beltway thinking is all about."
Ripp once planned to become a research chemist. However, after completing his bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, he took a position at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources where he was exposed to public policy issues of water resources. The political world fascinated him as much as the natural one, and Ripp began to think more about working in the halls of government than in a research laboratory. After his fellowship, Ripp intends to pursue a career in water resources management and believes his chemistry background will serve him well.
"I believe it’s important to have the scientific expertise to make sound decisions on resources policy," Ripp said.Sea Grant’s Knauss Fellowship program matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts in the legislative or executive branches of the federal government, or in associations and institutions located in the Washington, D.C., area that deal with marine or Great Lakes policy issues. The program was established in 1979 to "provide a unique educational experience for students interested in coastal, marine, and Great Lakes resources and the national policy decision affecting those resources," Reeb said. Ripp is the eleventh Wisconsin student to receive Knauss Fellowships over the last 19 years.
Two of the other winners will spend their fellowship year working on issues pertaining to the Great Lakes region. Jennifer Merrill, a Ph.D. candidate in marine and estuarine environmental science at the University of Maryland, will work in the office of Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) for the Great Lakes Task Force of the Northeast-Midwest Institute, a research and policy center in Washington, D.C. Ed Buckner, completing his Ph.D. in natural resources policy at Purdue University, will work in the office of Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisc.) for the institute’s Upper Mississippi River Task Force.For More Information:
Mary Lou Reeb, Education Coordinator, (608) 263-3296
Created in 1966, Sea Grant is a national network of 30 university-based programs of research, outreach and education dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of the United States' coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources. The National Sea Grant Network is a partnership of participating coastal states, private industry and the National Sea Grant College Program , National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration , U.S. Department of Commerce . The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program is administered by the Sea Grant Institute on the UW-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin.
Posted 12/18/96 by karl
Last updated 29 March 2000 by karl
All contents copyright 1998 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/Knauss99.htm
