IMET Ph.D. Students Shine in USM Board of Regents Awards

 The University of Maryland Board of Regents has awarded two scholarships to IMET students Jens Wira and Jonas Miller. The Student Excellence Scholarship for Academics, Scholarship, and Research is highly selective with only four awards given across USM. With around 37,000 graduate students within the USM, IMET is incredibly proud that two out of the four scholarships were awarded to IMET graduate students. 

Jens Wira, a UMCES-IMET Ph.D. candidate has been awarded for his unique work in Innovation and Creative Activity. Wira’s research is under the mentorship of Dr. Allen Place,  working at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET). Jens has an exceptional blend of scientific knowledge and creative thinking. During his time at IMET, he has successfully demonstrated his ability to go beyond methods of conventional science and propel his scientific knowledge in revolutionary ways. His work in the field of dinoflagellates has been a particular highlight here at IMET.  Jens has been able to quantify the swimming behavior of dinoflagellates while also deciphering the environmental cues for the behavior. 

In his off time, Jens enjoys orienteering, adventure racing, trail running, and mountain biking through the woods, having represented his home country of Singapore at national and international orienteering and adventure racing meets. He also enjoys cooking, and taking care of his 70+ house plants.  He and Miranda Judd also recently placed 3rd in the inaugural IMET Chilli Cookoff with his Southeast Asian style sambal belacan chili paste with scallion buns.  His perfect Sunday involves going to church, the post church nap, watering and caring for his plant babies, then making a nice meal.  

“Basically, the bottom line is, his innovative approach has not only advanced academic research but also significantly enriched our institute's scientific outreach and public engagement efforts,” said Dr. Allen Place.

Jonas Miller, a UMBC-IMET Ph.D. candidate has been awarded for his accomplishments in Academics, Scholarship and Research

Jonas is a third-year PhD student working on developing environmentally sustainable aquaculture methods and platforms with a special focus in out-of-season broodstock spawning and egg quality prediction technologies for Atlantic salmon. In recent years, one of the largest challenges associated with culturing North American Atlantic salmon is the significant decrease in egg “eye-up”, the point of embryo development where the black eye spot is visible to the naked eye.

His years of research have fostered collaborations with the USDA, University of Maine, University of Wisconsin, and University of Maryland. 

Under the mentorship of Dr. Yonathan Zohar, Professor of marine biotechnology at UMBC at IMET, Miller has a unique understanding of the industry of aquaculture and literature with a strong reliance on his expertise of his research of tuna in Japan. His distinctive knowledge has given him a great resource in expanding his scientific network and benefitting his colleagues.  Jonas is currently working on IMET’s NOAA and USDA-NIFA funded projects that aim to develop a new generation of environmentally responsible aquaculture platforms in the US. Through a novel method of isolating total RNA from the skin-mucus of Atlantic salmon broodstock,  Miller’s research aims to develop methods for spawning salmon year-round and to identify non-invasive reproductive biomarkers in salmon skin-mucus for predicting egg quality.

“His multi-year studies have already generated innovative findings, and his ongoing work will undoubtedly result in much more data and lead to scientific advances and, potentially, economic development opportunities.” Zohar adds.