Three Hollings Scholarships Awarded to UMD College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences Students
Three undergraduates in the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences have received National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ernest F. Hollings scholarships. Sophomores Jose Gabriel Almario, Kelsey Malloy and Jonathan Seibert received the awards, along with six other UMD undergraduate students.
Jose Gabriel “Gabe” Almario, a biological sciences major, is a member of the Integrated Life Sciences program in the university’s Honors College. He is also an undergraduate research assistant studying conservation biology in the laboratory of Department of Biology Associate Professor Karen Lips. This summer, he’ll be working at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), which is funded through a National Science Foundation grant to the University of Maryland.
Kelsey Malloy, an atmospheric and oceanic science major, is a member of the Gemstone program in the university’s Honors College and a mentor for the First-Year Innovation & Research Experience (FIRE) program. Her Gemstone team is investigating the use of 3-D technology to alleviate seizures of the muscle that controls accommodation and focusing of the human eye. Malloy is currently interning at the NOAA Weather & Climate Prediction Center and plans to spend her summer conducting research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Jonathan Seibert, who is double majoring in atmospheric and oceanic science and computer science, is a member of the Design | Cultures + Creativity program in the university’s Honors College and an intern at the Joint Global Change Research Institute. There, Seibert is creating a software system to analyze regional pollutant emissions.
NOAA receives an average of 900 Hollings undergraduate scholarship applications each year. This year, 150 scholarships were awarded. Each student will receive $8,000 per year in academic assistance; a 10-week, full-time paid summer internship at a NOAA facility; and the opportunity to renew the scholarship for a second year with the same benefits. The internship provides the scholars with hands-on educational training experience in NOAA-related science, research, technology, policy, management and education. Awards also include travel funds to attend orientation, conferences where students present a paper or poster and a housing subsidy for scholars who do not reside at home during the summer internship.
The Hollings scholarship program is designed to increase undergraduate training in oceanic and atmospheric science research, technology, and education, and foster multidisciplinary training opportunities; increase public understanding and support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere and improve environmental literacy; recruit and prepare students for public service careers with NOAA and other natural resource and science agencies at the federal, state and local levels of government; recruit and prepare students for careers as teachers and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science; and to improve scientific and environmental education in the United States.
