Sally Dowd ’16: DEEP DIVE INTO RESEARCH

Sally, who is working on her Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill, was featured in the university’s publication Impact on Our State showcasing the influence of her research on our Carolina coasts. The article takes a deeper dive into Sally’s work, which is to better understand how ocean warming affects fish populations and the broader impact of these changes. The tides have pulled Sally from family trips to Wilmington where she fell in love with ocean life, to the University of California, Berkeley, where she researched sharks and coral reefs, to a summer fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts where her research path was reinforced, and finally back to the Carolina coast to conduct research that furthers environmental and human well-being in a changing climate.

Sally states her realized connections between economics and ecology sparked interests in research that can inform policy. Before heading to graduate school, Sally took a position as a temporary research technician at the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) where her work evolved to monitor heatwave trends and what spikes in temperatures could mean for people and communities that rely on fish. This fall, Sally returned to school to lead her own research and pursue her Ph.D. before returning to IMS. In the same featured article, Sally stated,

“I have always wanted to do applied research. I want to be doing research that can impact the environment and humans in a positive way.”

You can read the full story here: https://unc.live/3XgVizy