URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2026_M

The University of Rhode Island was designated one of the first four Sea Grant Colleges in the U.S., thanks to the leadership of Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell and URI’s founding Oceanography Dean John A. Knauss. “Dr. John Knauss and Senator Claiborne Pell were visionaries who teamed up to create the National Sea Grant College Program, understanding that Rhode Island’s way of life is intertwined with the health of our coastal and marine resources,” says Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “Rhode Island Sea Grant has since been integral in helping Ocean State communities adapt to climate change, while nurturing countless leaders to take on the biggest oceans and coastal issues facing our nation. I’m always so pleased to support Sea Grant and all

the wonderful work being done at the world-class Graduate School of Oceanography at URI.” The small crowd clustered in the dirt parking lot of Jamiels Park in Warren, RI. High tide waters swirled up through the storm drain behind them, running from Belchers Cove and under the parking lot into the adjacent field. Butch Lombardi, a member of the Warren Conservation Commission says, “I was here for Hurricane Carol, and this whole area was underwater. If you look at the topography of Warren, there’s not much elevation anywhere … I think the Hurricane Carol flooding is probably symbolic of what’s going to be normal around 2050.” Lombardi was referring to the 1954 hurricane that unleashed a devastating storm surge up Narragansett Bay. “Projects like this, I think, will hopefully get people to understand that, you know, this is real. It’s going to happen, and it won’t happen in my lifetime, but it’s going to happen in my grandkids’ lifetime,” he says.

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