Peter August has been recognized with the 2011 Marc J. Hershman Excellence in Mentoring Award by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. The award was presented to August for his commitment to educating and mentoring students and young professionals pursuing careers in ocean and coastal science, policy and management. August is a professor in the natural-resources science department at the University of Rhode Island, and was the founding director of the URI Coastal Institute.
PBN: Did you have any mentors of your own who have guided you forward in your own educational and professional pursuits?
AUGUST: Dr. Ross Dingman, my undergraduate mentor at the University of San Diego, single-handedly set me on the career path that I followed. He hired me on as a field assistant to help him with ecological surveys of nature refuges near San Diego. Doc Dingman got me going on my career path, and professor Tom Kunz, my Ph.D. adviser at Boston University, applied the finishing touches. The influence of my past mentors – Drs. Dingman and Kunz – have been profound for me and are a constant reminder of the potential impact I can have on my students.
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PBN: How did you first become involved with the URI Coastal Institute?
AUGUST: The Coastal Institute was an idea that emerged in the early ’90s and I was a rabid supporter of the concept from the beginning – a place where the scholarly resources of URI could be brought to bear on the complex issues facing coastal and marine ecosystems in Rhode Island. All the tough issues facing the nation’s coastal ecosystems happen in Rhode Island and the Coastal Institute is a way to connect the dots.
PBN: You’ve also led the institute’s multidisciplinary Ph.D. program. Can you tell us about this program?
AUGUST: The National Science Foundation granted my colleagues and I a $3 million award (2005-2011) to develop innovative ways to create a new generation of Ph.D. students [who] would be effective in working on complex multidisciplinary problems in coastal ecosystems. A small group of URI faculty from natural resources science, environmental economics, oceanography, communication studies, marine science and policy and philosophy got together and created an incredible program called the Coastal Institute IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) Project (CIIP). The lessons we learned in the CIIP are now being integrated into URI’s graduate programs in coastal and marine science and policy. •
