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ABOUT US
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PERSONNEL
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ALUMNI
HRI ALUMNI
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OVERVIEW: The
scientists on this page are all former HRI students and staff members who worked under
one of the endowed faculty of HRI's various
research programs. The
knowledge and experience these former students and staff members gained at HRI will stay
with them for years to come and shape the scientists they become. |
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DR. PETER ETNOYER
HRI PHD GRADUATE
Dr. Peter Etnoyer is the first doctoral fellow to earn a PhD from HRI,
where he worked with HRI's Endowed Chair for Marine
Biodiversity & Conservation Science Dr. Tom
Shirley. His
focus
 was on deep-sea octocorals in the Gulf of Mexico.
In
September 2009, Peter will be working in support of NOAA’s Protected
Areas and Resources Branch at the Center for Coastal Environmental
Health and Biomolecular Research in Charleston, SC, where he will work to
implement a federal deep-sea coral research program.
Peter’s research interests include:
· octocoral systematics
· biogeography
· marine ecology
· marine conservation
· spatial information systems
Peter holds both a masters and bachelors degree from Duke University. His
field research began in the Philippine Sulu Sea and has since taken him
to shallow tropical sites throughout the Caribbean and deep sites in the
North Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico using manned submersibles and
Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). Peter enjoys writing as a form of
science education and outreach. While at HRI, Peter served as co-editor
of the Deep-Sea News
blog, now one of the most popular marine science and nature blogs. |
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RYAN FIKES
HRI MS GRADUATE
From 2006 to 2008, Ryan Fikes
worked as the laboratory operations assistant at HRI and conducted macroalgal ecology research under HRI
Research
 Associate Dr. Roy Lehman. His thesis research looked at recruitment and colonization of macroalgae to the rocky jetties of
Packery Channel located in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ryan also spent three summers traveling to southern Quintana Roo
in Mexico as an
assistant for the Coral Reef Ecology course, where he assisted students and conducted research in the rocky intertidal.
While working at HRI Ryan collaborated in research efforts with Endowed Professor
Dr. Greg Stunz on propeller-scar
research and Dr. Kim Withers on benthic invertebrate assemblages in algal communities.
Ryan’s overall interests include community ecology, conservation biology and ecosystem linkages. Since leaving HRI he has begun
working for the Gulf of Mexico Foundation as the Project Manager for their Habitat Restoration Program. The program partners with
the NOAA Restoration Center and the US EPA to implement coastal restoration projects around the Gulf of Mexico and US Caribbean territories.
"For many years I have been studying the ecology of coastal habitats,” says Ryan. “Now I have the opportunity to take a proactive
role in making sure those habitats are around for future generations to enjoy.” |
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ED GORECKI
HRI MPA GRADUATE
Ed
Gorecki began working as HRI’s first graduate research assistant after
finishing his B.S. in Biology at TAMU-CC in 2005. Working under
Dr.
Richard McLaughlin, HRI’s endowed chair for
Coastal and Marine
Policy and Law,
 Gorecki’s research focused on offshore cooperative
hydrocarbon development agreements between the U.S. and Mexico, U.N.
Law of the Sea continental shelf extension requirements, and emerging
energy technology policies in the Gulf of Mexico (including offshore
wind energy development in Texas). He also played a large role in
facilitation of
HRI’s Law of the Sea Institute Conference held in 2007.
During his time at HRI, Gorecki served as the vice president and
president of TAMU-CC’s Graduate Student Association, organizing its
first Graduate research symposium in 2007, and served as the faculty
advisor for the Sigma Phi Epsilon, Texas Chi chapter. Prior to earning
his Masters of Public Administration in Environmental Science in August
of 2007, he spent a summer interning for the U.S. House of
Representatives in Washington, DC. Following his graduation, Gorecki was selected for the
John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship through NOAA’s National Sea Grant
program and now works in the Office of the Assistant Administrator for
the National Marine Fisheries Service in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Gorecki: “Just like the challenge issued by Ed
Harte, my goal has always been to ‘make a difference’ in protecting
and managing our oceans. Working for the country’s lead ocean agency, I
feel like I have that chance, and it is truly an honor.” |
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SURAIDA NANEZ-JAMES
FORMER HRI RESEARCH SPECIALIST
Suraida Nañez-James worked with Dr. Wes Tunnell on
 invasive species and science education and outreach for the HRI
from 2006 to 2008. She received her B.S. in Marine Fisheries from Texas A&M University
at Galveston while working for the NOAA Fisheries Laboratory in Galveston. In 2006, she received her Masters in Biology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
where she focused her studies on identifying and characterizing nursery habitats for juvenile southern flounder in Texas bays. Her areas of interest include
fisheries biology and ecology, ecosystem studies, invasive species and science education. |
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MIKELL SMITH
HRI MS GRADUATE
Mikell Smith came to HRI after prior careers in television and property management with an eye toward integrating environmental and economic interests.
 His bachelor's
degree was in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin. While
obtaining a master's in Environmental Science (completed August 2008 at
TAMU-CC), he researched marine policy under Dr. Richard McLaughlin, joining two
A&M-Galveston students in collecting content relevant to collaborative, science-based governance of the Gulf of Mexico. He later built a database and
conceptualized a strategy which resulted in InfoHub, an information
resource which has been publicly available since February 2009 on GulfBase and
is
maintained through a partnership with the National Sea Grant Law Center. Under
Dr. Ian MacDonald, he analyzed images of chemosynthetic communities,
taking the initiative to track team progress. A stint as a surveyor on an economic study of freshwater inflows rounded
out his interdisciplinary work exposure. Smith focused on economic solutions for waste management in his academic research and, as President of
the Graduate Student Association, organized the 2008 Scholarly Works Symposium at TAMU-CC.
On graduating, Smith achieved his career goal of working along the
interface of society and science, crediting staff and faculty members of
HRI and TAMU-CC for their personalized guidance toward that success. He
currently works with conservation planning as a Project Manager for the
Gulf of Mexico Foundation
and serves as Vice Chair for the
City of Corpus Christi’s Clean City
Advisory Committee. |
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JENNY WRAST
HRI MS GRADUATE
From 2006 to 2008, Jenny Wrast
 worked
as a graduate research assistant
under HRI's Endowed Research Professor
Dr. Greg Stunz conducting fisheries ecology research. Specifically,
her thesis research was on the spatial and temporal variability in
oyster reef food web structure compared to other estuarine habitats.
While working at HRI Jenny participated in many research projects
including:
- Reef fish assemblage study of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve,
Quintana Roo, Mexico
- Origins of spotted seatrout stocks: assessing the contribution of
different nursery grounds to adult stocks using chemical signatures
- Closure of the Port Mansfield Channel: impacts to recreational
fisheries in the Laguna Madre, Texas
- Access to estuarine nursery habitat: recruitment dynamics of nekton
through tidal inlets
Jenny’s research interests include fisheries ecology, management, and
ecosystem dynamics. She now works for the Environmental Institute of
Houston as the Senior Environmental Research Associate at the
University of Houston-Clear Lake. “HRI gave me the opportunity to meet and work
with some top researches in a wide variety of fields, providing me with
a broad and very marketable knowledge base when I graduated from the
program,” Wrast said. |
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