URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2026_M

One of those students was Joe Langan, who completed his Ph.D. with Graduate School of Oceanography Professor Jeremy Collie, a fisheries scientist funded by Rhode Island Sea Grant to study the decline of winter flounder in Narragansett Bay. While at URI, Langan also completed an M.S. in statistics with Associate Professor Gavino Puggioni. “We found that the population decline of winter flounder in Rhode Island was due largely to increasing juvenile mortality. We were able to identify a few different factors that appear to be involved, most having to do with climate change. Our research became part of a broader suite throughout the region that was actually used to change how the regional winter flounder stock was managed,” Langan says. Langan says this opportunity gave him a chance to “work with state biologists, biologists from other states, other universities, as well as interface directly with fishermen, which I thought was also really valuable to get their perspective.” His research assistantship led to a National Marine Fisheries Service/Sea Grant Population and Ecosystem Dynamics Fellowship, and from there to a staff position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he is currently a research fish biologist. Rhode Island Sea Grant also provides students with the opportunity to have hands on experience in research, extension, communications, and policymaking. Emily Patrolia, founder and CEO of ESP Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, also forged her career with Sea Grant support. Patrolia came to URI’s Marine Affairs program for a Rhode Island Sea Grant-funded research assistantship with Professor Rob Thompson to study human uses of Rhode Island’s coastal salt ponds through observational mapping and interviews. The goal of the project was

Austin Becker, URI Department of Marine Affairs professor and chair says, “Rhode “Rhode Island Sea Grant plays an essential role in bridging the research conducted at URI and Brown with community needs. Tremper and Berry understand the technical side of the research efforts around coastal resilience and help researchers understand how our work can best be tailored to address the challenges Rhode Island decision makers face in emergency management and long-term resilience planning.” Rhode Island Sea Grant, one of the 34 university-based programs around the U.S. that make up the National Sea Grant College Program, supports a healthy coastal environment and economy through funding top notch research, extension, workforce development, communications, and a legal program that is based at Roger Williams University School of Law. In addition to coastal resilience work, other extension team members focus on fisheries and aquaculture and the blue economy—that part of the economy that relies on marine resources for business and industry, research and development, energy resources, national defense, culture, or recreation. Rhode Island Sea Grant also provides students with the opportunity to have hands-on experience in research, extension, communications, and policymaking.

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