Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant | University of Illinois

Back to Newsroom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 1997

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant-Sponsored Candidate Selected as Knauss Fellow

An Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant-sponsored candidate has been selected as a Dean John A. Knauss Policy Fellow for 1998. Jeffrey A. Stein was named a Knauss Fellow by the National Sea Grant College Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As a Knauss Fellow, Stein will work for one year in Washington D. C., on national policy issues related to aquatic resources. He will be assigned to the office of U. S. Representative Ron Kind who represents a district in southwestern Wisconsin that borders the Mississippi River.

"My major focus will be organizing an upper Mississippi River Congressional task force similar to the Great Lakes Task Force," Stein said. "Knauss Fellows also answer questions from constituents on environmental issues."

Stein is a master’s degree candidate in natural resources, ecology and conservation biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been a teaching and research assistant at the U of I and was a technical research scientist at the Illinois Department of Natural Resource’s Lake Michigan Biological Station in Zion, IL. He has received a number of awards including a recent American Fisheries Society scholarship to present a paper at the Society’s annual conference in Monterey, CA.

A native of Bloomingdale in the Chicago suburbs, Stein noted, "Growing up, I fished in Minnesota and Canada, but I didn’t look at Lake Michigan as a resource until I started working at the Lake Michigan Biological Station. I look forward to this educational experience that will help me bridge the gap between scientists and policy makers by providing a perspective to legislators on ecological research in the Great Lakes region."

Sea Grant Director Phillip E. Pope said, "The Knauss Fellows Program gives students unique opportunities to gain a better understanding of the legislative processes. We’re pleased to sponsor a student for this exceptional educational experience."

The Knauss Fellows Program was established in 1979 to provide education experiences in policies and processes of the legislative branch of federal government and was later expanded to include the executive branch. An Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant-sponsored Knauss Fellow, John Epifanio, served with the U. S. Senate Great Lakes Task Force in 1990.

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant candidate Martha Herzog, a Geosciences grad student at Purdue, was selected as a 1998 alternate.

--30--

The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program is one of more than 30 National Sea Grant College Programs. Created by Congress in 1966, Sea Grant combines university, government, business and industry expertise to address coastal and Great Lakes needs. Funding is provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U. S. Department of Commerce, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana.