Environmental Science Alumni Spotlight: Christie Klimas
Resourceful, Energetic and Always on the Go This Environmental Science Graduate Travels the World to Research Global Climate Change

Christie Klimas came to Southampton Graduate Campus from her native Ohio as a Marine Science major. The summer after her freshman year, she interned at the Mt. Desert Oceanarium in Maine. But her interests (and her major) shifted to Environmental Science leading her to spend the second semester of her sophomore year on a scholarship at Biosphere 2, Columbia University’s experimental research center in the desert of Arizona.

The following summer she completed an internship in Alaska at the International Tundra Experiment. At this time, Christie focused her research interests on global climate change. The next year she completed an internship at Duke University's FACE (Free-Air Carbon Exchange) forestry station in North Carolina. Her research there formed the basis for her honors thesis, entitled "Relationships between Temperature and the Photosynthetic Response to CO2 in Loblolly Pine in Free-Air CO2 Enrichment." She was featured in a NOVA documentary wearing a hard hat, taking samples from the top of a pine tree.

At the College's Awards Convocation, Christie was given the first annual Honors Program Prize for her outstanding work.

Christie returned to Southampton Graduate Campus on a prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarship. When she decided she wanted to work in Latin America after graduation, she spent the winter session of her senior year in Guatemala in a Spanish language immersion program. The next term she commuted to C.W. Post campus of Long Island University to study Portuguese.

Always resourceful, she earned a certificate in CPR. Adding to her impressive credentials, she also became a certified PADI advanced open water scuba diver and a certified FIFA soccer referee.

A whitewater-rafting trip during Christie's busy senior year let to a job offer from Biosphere 2. That was followed by a Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship to go to Brazil for a year to continue her research on global climate change.