Knauss Fellow Update: Victoria Luu

April 20th, 2020

As a 2020 Knauss Fellow representing New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, Victoria Luu (Princeton University) is currently working in the NOAA Office of International Affairs under Director Elizabeth McLanahan. Check out what’s going on!

February 2020

Tori started out her fellowship by jumping straight into a major international meeting. She flew to Oslo, Norway on Day 1 to participate in the biannual meeting of the Arctic Council’s Protection of the Marine Environment Working Group as part of the United States delegation. The Arctic Council is an effective high-level forum for cooperation and coordination whose work ranges from developing factsheets and reports to establishing binding treaties. By Day 5, Tori was already working actively with the team to edit a zero order draft of the Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter in the Arctic. There was fortunately some time for fun after the work was done, and the meeting participants all got to enjoy an evening at the Norwegian Maritime Museum. It was definitely an exciting start to the Knauss Fellowship!

March 2020

Almost all of the Knauss Fellows have been teleworking since Mid-March, but the work doesn’t stop! Everyone has been incredibly resourceful, and video chatting, webinars, and conference calls have become the new normal. Tori has still gotten to help staff in some high-level meetings with RDML Tim Gallaudet, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy NOAA Administrator, as well as help facilitate and moderate some sessions of the Arctic Science Summit Week in its new virtual form. International collaboration is still happening within NOAA – it’s just the scheduling has been trickier not being able to be in the same time zone!

###

We appreciate all Knauss fellows as they continue working hard and diligently, despite the current circumstances surrounding COVID-19. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Click here to learn more about NJSGC’s Knauss Class of 2020, which also includes Michael Acquafredda (Rutgers University) and Brittany Schieler (Rutgers University).