RV Rutgers, the school’s new research vessel.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Explorations, Fall 2016.
The Raritan River snakes its way through the Rutgers campuses in New Brunswick, but also represents an ideal urbanized field laboratory. Now, due to the generosity of the Office of the Chancellor—New Brunswick, SEBS’ Office of the Executive Dean and a gift in kind from the boat manufacturer, the William E. Munson Company, a new 36-foot, 20-passenger landing craft has become the classroom for that wonderful field laboratory.
Students Amanda Duerkes and Jacob Gonzalez collecting water samples in Raritan Ray.
The vessel—currently called the RV Rutgers—is being used to transform the Raritan River into an interactive learning community enabling interdisciplinary education programs and spanning schools and departments from marine science and civil engineering to history and fine arts.
The RV Rutgers will provide a platform for a new program known as the Rutgers Collaborative for Raritan Education and Observation that will bring students from throughout New Brunswick to study the evolving status of the river.
