Many residents of the state don’t know that one of every four Texans lives along the coast, or perhaps that Texas has 16 major ports and more than 3,300 miles of bays and estuaries.

Dr. Peter Santschi, professor of Marine Sciences at Texas A&M University at Galveston and of Oceanography at Texas A&M University has received funding for two major research studies. Santschi, who specializes in Environmental RadioBioGeoChemistry, will be heading both grant-funded projects through 2012.

July 30, 2009 started off just like most days for Alyson Azzara aboard the vessel Gordon Gunter. A Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston, Azzara had been at sea for weeks with a crew from the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center and the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service.