Michael Acquafredda.
Michael Acquafredda, doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution in the School of Graduate Studies, is among 69 national finalists in the 2020 class of the NOAA and Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program.
Named after one of Sea Grant’s founders and former NOAA Administrator John A. Knauss, the fellowship is a unique educational and professional experience open to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources.
Since 1979, the National Sea Grant College Program has administered the one-year fellowship program that matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.
The 2020 Knauss finalists will become the 41st class of the fellowship and will join a group of more than 1,300 early-career professionals to have received hands-on experiences transferring science to policy and management through one-year appointments with federal government offices in Washington, D.C.
Knauss finalists are chosen through a competitive process that includes several rounds of review at both the state Sea Grant program and national levels. Following a series of placement interviews with executive or legislative offices, finalists will begin their fellowship in February 2020.
