Knauss legislative fellowships in Congress help build careers — and they're fun and educational. See our video and fact sheet for details.
Current Graduate Fellows
Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship
Fellowship at:
NOAA National Weather Service, Ocean Prediction CenterCool Facts:
Isabel Butler Viruet is a Knauss fellow with NOAA's National Weather Service, Ocean Prediction Center. She recently defended her dissertation, where she studied how floating wetlands remove nitrogen from coastal systems and how they can complement restoration efforts.
Fellowship at:
Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water, Office of Science and TechnologyCool Facts:
Shayna is working at the Environmental Protection Agency in the Office of Water and Office of Science and Technology. She developed a deep love for the Chesapeake Bay at an early age, and has carried this passion for the water into her career.
Fellowship at:
NOAA National Marine Fisheries ServiceCool Facts:
Aiman Raza is a 2025 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow with NOAA Fisheries. For her master’s thesis, she used environmental DNA to study Brook Trout populations in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay.
Fellowship at:
NOAA OAR Climate Program OfficeCool Facts:
Casey Willson is an Executive Knauss Fellow with NOAA OAR's Climate Program Office. She is passionate about supporting community-based fisheries and the importance of fishing communities to our nation’s culture and economy.Competitive Graduate Research Fellowship
Fellowship at:
University of Maryland, College ParkProject Title:
Sperm Quality Characterization of Male Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) in Response to Legacy Urban Contaminants from the Anacostia RiverCool Facts:
Sabine Malik is a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, College Park studying the impacts of urban aquatic pollution on the reproductive health of the male mummichog, an estuarine fish species. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, baking, antiquing, and spending time with her cat, Bijou.
Fellowship at:
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental ScienceProject Title:
Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food websCool Facts:
Nina Santos is a Ph.D. student at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. For her dissertation, she is focused on small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids – an understudied yet important part of many estuarine and coastal food webs.Maryland Sea Grant Research Fellowship
Fellowship at:
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental ScienceProject Title:
Proof-of-Concept Tools for Local Governments to Address Water Quality Restoration in Shallow, Sub-Estuary Tidal WatersCool Facts:
Julia Smeltzer is a master's student in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Science program at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Her project combines land use and water quality data to recommend restoration strategies that help improve water quality in Calvert County.
Fellowship at:
Morgan State UniversityProject Title:
Baltimore BLUE-CORE - BLUEspace COllaborative REsearch for Urban Coastal Access and Climate Resilience in South BaltimoreCool Facts:
Ebram’s dissertation aims to elevate a conversation around designing with nature to engineer ease, particularly for people living along coastal urban cityscapes. When he has free time he loves to travel to beaches, read about world history, write poetry, and sketch.Program Announcements
News and Blogs
Featured Fellow
Leone Yisrael is a cephalopod-loving scuba diver, cook, and loves to try new activities. She conducts genetic analysis and fieldwork at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center through the Coastal Disease Ecology Lab.
Featured Research Project
Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food webs
Mysids are important mesozooplankton prey for many species of fish in Chesapeake Bay and are an important link in transferring energy from lower to upper trophic levels. Mysids also serve as biological vectors for benthic-pelagic coupling due to their diel vertical migration and omnivorous prey-switching behavior, which makes mysids important regulators of food web architecture. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about mysid ecology and dynamics in Chesapeake Bay.
