Eight LSU Grad Students Selected as 2024 Van Lopik Scholars

Eight Louisiana State University (LSU) graduate students are 2024 recipients of the Dr. Jack and Annagreta Hojhdal Van Lopik Superior Graduate Student Research Scholarship.

Jack Van Lopik, the first and longest serving executive director of the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program at LSU, and his wife Annagreta Hojhdal Van Lopik, established the scholarship to assist graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in disciplines related to the mission and focus areas of the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program. The intent is to support the Sea Grant mission of furthering the wise and sustainable use of ocean and coastal resources by increasing the number of researchers and the body of knowledge in related fields including but not limited to biology, ecology, geology, fisheries, environmental science, coastal resiliency and design, natural resources economics, environmental education and disaster preparedness and extension.

Applicants must be full-time graduate students at LSU in good academic standing. Scholarship recipients are awarded $10,000 for one year to cover stipend, conference travel, field travel, field experiences and other expenses.

Howard Dunleavy

Dunleavy is a master’s student in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. He earned his Bachelor of Science at Virginia Tech.

His project is titled Long-term Trends in Gulf Fisheries Populations in Response to a Changing Climate. The fisheries industry in Louisiana brings in nearly $2 billion annually. His research aims to answer the questions of how Gulf of Mexico fisheries might respond to climate changes and rising aquatic temperatures by analyzing long-term, fishery-independent data collected by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). He envisions his findings will help organizations like LDWF and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) improve upon their best management practices for sustainable use of coastal natural resource.

Ebenezer Etsiwah

Etsiwah is pursuing a Master of Science degree in civil engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

His research project is titled A Novel Disinfection Technology for Onsite Wastewater Treatment using UV-LEDs. Soil conditions of Louisiana, particularly Tangipahoa Parish, make the suitability of onsite wastewater treatment systems – such as septic systems – a challenge. Sewage runoff through ditches and aerated treatment units during intense rainfall has a cumulative impact on nearby water bodies. Recent advances in the use of germicidal ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with wastewater treatment look to be a promising solution. As part of the project, a solar-powered disinfection reactor using LEDs and low doses of chlorine will be developed and tested for its effectiveness with aerated treatment units in the parish.

Daniel W. Harris

Harris is a master’s student in the Department of Agricultural Economics. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural economics at Louisiana State University.

His project is titled Fishing for Solutions: Compensation for Bycatch Reduction in the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Fishery. Bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) are used to reduce unwanted finfish captured in shrimp trawls. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is compensation to shrimp boats for using BRDs. As part of this project, surveys are collected from commercial shrimpers to determine their willingness to accept compensation to voluntarily place a new BRD in in their nets, with the goal of reducing bycatch. The results of this research may provide evidence to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that some commercial shrimpers are willing to voluntarily pull a new BRD for a payment level determined by NOAA.

Madelyn Y. Hathcock

Hathcock is pursuing a Master of Science degree in civil engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental engineering from LSU.

Her project is titled Hydroxylamine Driven Nitrous Oxide Formation in Wastewater Chlorination. This research focuses on the discovery of the seemingly unknown reaction between hydroxylamine (NH₂OH) and chlorine used in wastewater treatment. Within the chlorine contact basins of wastewater treatment plants, chlorine is added to the NH₂OH-containing wastewater, which results in the production of nitrous oxide (N₂O) – a potent greenhouse gas – being emitted into the atmosphere. This project is to quantify the overlooked NH₂OH-sourced N₂O gas formation potential in several wastewater sources. This research aims to also establish a method for the quantification of NH₂OH at low detection ranges, as well as standard NH₂OH sample collection, handling, and storage protocols.

Emily F. Hura

Hura is a master’s student in the Department of Renewable Natural Resources. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

Her research project is titled Sex-specific Differences in Habitat use for Spotted Seatrout in a Dynamic Northern Gulf of Mexico Estuary. An important species along the northern Gulf of Mexico, spotted seatrout is only harvested recreationally in Louisiana. However, population distributions indicate sexually specific migration patterns based on salinity and water temperature. This in turn can lead to skewed sex-specific harvest rates by anglers, as well as create incorrect estimates of male-female ratios that fishery managers need to assess the size and health of fishery stocks. To help maintain the sustainability of the fishery, Hura plans to develop harvesting best practices outreach materials for anglers to increase sustainability in the spotted seatrout fishery.

Lee A. Potter

Potter is a doctoral student in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. He earned his Bachelor of Science in environmental science from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. His Master of Science degree in Renewable Natural Resources was completed at LSU.

His project, titled Climate-Driven Perspective of Phosphorus Dynamics in Coastal Watersheds: Implications for Harmful Algal Blooms, focuses on phosphorus as an essential nutrient in coastal ecosystems and water quality. When excess phosphorus loads are released in waterways like the Lake Pontchartrain Estuary (LPE), harmful algal blooms (HABs) can arise and impact economies and communities that utilize the estuary. This project aims to determine the magnitude and distribution of phosphorus in the LPE. This research should enable watershed managers to understand the cause of HABs better and work to predict when they might occur.

Mischa Schultz

Schultz is a doctoral student in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. She earned her Master of Science degree in natural resources from the University of Missouri, and a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resources from the University of Georgia.

Schultz’s project is titled Age, Growth and Reproductive Biology of the Greater Amberjack in the Gulf of Mexico. Declines in several reef fish species in the Gulf of Mexico have led to regulatory actions such as decreased bag limits and seasonal closures. Greater amberjack is a reef fish important to both commercial and recreational fisheries, yet, like many other reef fish, greater amberjack has been classified as overfished and undergoing overfishing. Despite the recreational importance of the species, there is a lack of scientific studies on greater amberjack in the Gulf of Mexico. With the aim of better understanding greater amberjack reproductive biology, Schultz’s research will focus on obtaining information on reproductive biology of the species, as well as age and growth, which are necessary for unbiased estimates of stock productivity.

Daniel A. Sinopoli

Sinopoli is a doctoral student in the Department of Biological Sciences. He earned his Master of Science degree in fish and wildlife biology management from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and his Bachelor of Science degree in aquatics and fisheries science from the same institution.

His research project is titled Re-examining Species Richness in a Living Fossil Lineage (Lepisosteidae). In the late 19th century, taxonomists often described similar or identical animals nearly simultaneously, without instantaneous access to the work of their peers, resulting in redundant descriptions. Ultimately, many of these species’ names were invalidated or “sunk,” synonymized under a single name. Between 1858 and 1870, five gar species were described that would ultimately become the single spotted gar we know today. The downside to lumping species prior to genetic analyses is that it can invalidate a potentially valid species name by listing it as a synonym. This project uses molecular and geometric morphometric techniques to re-examine the five synonyms of spotted gar described across its distribution to determine if any synonyms are valid species and should be split from true spotted gar.