VIMS

Technical Support

The Outstanding Classified Employee awards are chosen by nominations received by the Awards Committee from all faculty, staff, and students at VIMS. They are awarded in the categories of Facilities/Safety/Trades, Research and Advisory Service, Technical Support, and Administrative Support.

The winner of the 2009 Outstanding Classified Employee for Technical Support is Ms. Grace Cartwright.

Ms.  Grace Cartwright.During her 23 years at VIMS, Grace has led field experiments, deployments, and field sampling in Virginia in Lynnhaven Inlet, in the Elizabeth, James, Potomac and York rivers; in North Carolina on the shelf off Cape Fear and in the surf zone off Duck; throughout the Virginia and Maryland waters of Chesapeake Bay; in Brunswick Harbor, Georgia; in Plum Island, Massachusetts; in San Francisco Bay, California; and off the Waiapu River, New Zealand. Grace's many technological innovations include the design and construction of a real-time tripod-to-buoy communications system, an SQL-based server for storing and serving observing system data and meta-data, and the "ROSE" profiler for Real-time Oceanographic Sensing Equipment (which she proudly named after her daughter).

Grace has also been lead PI on her own externally funded VIMS contracts totaling more than $175,000. She has authored or co-authored dozens of articles, reports, and abstracts. She has regularly attended technical workshops and given countless talks, including invited presentations to the EPA/NOAA Chesapeake Bay Program and to New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. As well as supervising staff, Grace has co-mentored 16 high school and undergraduate interns, served as a teaching assistant and guest lectured in SMS Core Courses, and twice taught the W&M Geology Introductory Lab on the main campus.

Grace is an outstanding employee at VIMS, and we are proud to honor her with this award.

Congratulations, Grace!