Two New Marine Projects Funded for Florida Tech Professor

MELBOURNE, FLA. — John H. Trefry, Ph.D., Florida Tech professor of oceanography, has earned funding for two new projects. He received $140,000 from Palm
Beach County and $247,000 from the Shell Exploration & Production Company.

In his Palm Beach County research, Trefry will seek to determine the sources of muck sediment in the Lake Worth Lagoon using various elemental and isotopic
tracers. He also will analyze samples for potential pollutants such as mercury and lead and investigate suspended sediments for their impacts on light
penetration in the lagoon.

The Shell Oil study will provide environmental data related to offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea in the Alaskan Arctic. Field work, carried out during
August 2008, will include studies of sediments, benthic biota and the water column. This Shell-funded work is in collaboration with the University of Texas
Marine Science Institute.
 
Additionally, because of Trefry’s environmental studies of offshore oil development, he has been reappointed by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne
to serve another three-year term as a member of the Mineral Management Service’s Outer Continental Shelf Scientific Committee.

Oceanography studies at Florida Tech are part of the Department of Marine and Environmental Systems, College of Engineering.