A researcher at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) has been chosen as a finalist for a prestigious American marine fellowship.

Kimberly Holzer will relocate to Washington, DC for a year as a recipient of the 2011 Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.

The award is sponsored by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the education of students with an interest in marine and ocean resources and in national policy decisions affecting those resources.

Dr. Holzer first came to Bermuda in 2003 and did research for her dissertation on Bermuda's recent seagrass decline.

She said: "I'm delighted to be selected for this fellowship. I am excited to relocate to Washington, DC for a year to learn first-hand about translating quality science into effective environmental policy decisions.

"I believe that my findings concerning local Bermuda seagrass declines have far-reaching implications with the potential to change the way we manage shallow coastal ecosystems worldwide."

In 2008, she earned a Science to Achieve Results fellowship through the US Environmental Protection Agency and was recently chosen to co-author a book in aquatic sciences using her findings from Bermuda as case studies.