CALS alumna receives Walter B. Jones Sr. Memorial Award for coastal work

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences graduate Robin Worrell Wienke is one of four North Carolinians who has received the Walter B. Jones Sr. Memorial Award for Excellence in Coastal and Marine Graduate Studies. Presented June 10 as part of Capitol Hill Oceans Week, the Jones awards are administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The awards are named for Walter B. Jones Sr., who represented North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1966 to 1992, including many years chairing the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

N.C. State University’s Wienke was honored by the NOAA for current and expected roles in coastal or ocean management activities along with fellow North Carolinians Ben Young Landis and Mary Turnipseed of Duke University and Steve McMurray of UNC-Wilmington.

Wienke received her CALS bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 2003. As a North Carolina Sea Grant science communications fellow in 2008-09, Wienke developed the Sustainability Series that is used in training local leaders. She received her master’s degree in technical communication from N.C. State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences and is currently a quality specialist at Expression Analysis Inc. in Durham.

— North Carolina Sea Grant