Spring Newsletter – Spotlight: Megan Schutt and Joel Fodrie
Megan Schutt
Seim Lab, M.S. Candidate
What made you decide to study marine sciences? I studied engineering for my undergraduate degree. I joined this marine science department because of the NC Wind Study project that Harvey is doing with Duke Energy. Marine Science is a bit of a misnomer for me – I probably think about water less than any student in this department!
Any vacation/career plans after receiving your degree? I’m going to Norway in June to learn some wind simulation software, and putz around the fjords.
Hobbies: I like to cook things like noodles and pie, and solve nonagrams.
Favorite Food and TV Show: Dumplings and the X-Files.
Favorite marine creature: My least favorite marine creature is the seagull. They always want my sandwiches.
Joel Fodrie
Associate Professor
What made you decide to study marine sciences? I needed a summer job after my junior year. I noticed the posters on the wall which were about marine sciences while walking through old Venable. I was more of a pre-med track. And I said, “Huh people actually do that for a living.” I asked if I could have a summer job and they said yes. I enjoyed it a lot that summer and there I was.
I worked for Dr. Hans Paerl and collected water samples from the Neuse. I also began an independent honors thesis with Pete Peterson. I was able to see water column phytoplankton community ecology and benthic ecology. So, I did both technician work and also an independent honors thesis.
Any vacation plans? I’m not a big vacationer and I’m not critiquing vacationers, I just stink at planning vacations. I do plan on going camping on Core Banks, Cape Lookout area. I have a boat. I like to go out on the water with my two boys.
Later this summer – it’s kind of geeky but it’ll be a vacation for me, I am going to go down to the gulf and sample fishes from the Florida panhandle to the Chandelier Islands in Louisiana. I lived on the gulf for three years – and loved the different sites and the water down there I love. So to go down there and to see the areas that I used to go visit that is for me therapeutic if not technically a vacation.
Favorite Movie and Food: I do not like TV. I do not despise TV but I dislike TV, I love movies. I watch a lot of kid’s movies cause of my boys. I will admit to the fact that I think Pixar while they’re cartoons are incredibly well done they usually have tremendously well thought out stories. They’re visually exciting and engaging and I have no qualms about saying whether it’s Cars, Finding Nemo, or Wall-E I tend to watch those with a 4-year-old repeatedly and not want to throw up.
In terms of adult movies – I suppose Saving private Ryan. It seemed very consequential to me. It gave me a minuscule window of the real cost what some people go through in war and what people are capable of. It [definitely] stuck with me.
I am also not a food person though, I admit to a weakness for cheese fries. Fries, cheese, bacon.
Hobbies: When I have the time, I used to love reading history. So I am a big revolutionary war buff. I like basketball, I’ve always played basketball and I play basketball still. And during the winter I like to duck hunt.
Favorite Marine Creature: I’m on record as being a big fan of the Red Drum. It’s a big estuarine fish. It has a beautify sheen to it. It eats blue crabs for a living. Which it takes a somewhat of a brave fish to go up to a blue crab with its pincers and gobble it up. When I was younger it was a rare fish and because of management they’ve made it more abundant so I think the story of the Red Drum is something [admire].