Religion Brooks, a graduate scholar within the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, has had a transparent dream for the reason that age of 4: to develop into a pilot.
“At round 8 years previous, my neighbor knew I needed to fly and confirmed me photos of her dad touchdown a jet on an plane provider, and I used to be instantly captivated,” says Brooks. Additional impressed by her grandfather’s expertise within the U.S. Navy (USN), and owing to a lifelong fascination with aviation, she knew nothing would stand in her manner.
Brooks explored a number of completely different paths to turning into a pilot, however she says one dialog along with her longtime mentor, Capt. Matt Skone, USN (Ret.), modified the trajectory of her life.
“He requested if I had heard of the Naval Academy,” she recollects. “On the time, I hadn’t … I instantly knew that that was the place I needed to go, and every thing else I discovered about United States Naval Academy (USNA) strengthened that for me.”
In her “firstie” (senior) yr on the USNA, Brooks was chosen to go to Pensacola, Florida, and prepare to develop into a naval pilot as a scholar naval aviator, taking her one step nearer to her dream. The USNA additionally helped information her path to MIT. Her journey to becoming a member of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program started with the USNA’s skilled data curriculum, the place she examine retired Capt. Wendy Lawrence SM ’88, a naval aviator and astronaut.
“Studying her bio prompted me to look into this system, and it seemed like the right program for me — the place else might you get a greater schooling in ocean engineering than MIT and Woods Gap Oceanographic Establishment [WHOI]?”
Within the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, Brooks is researching the influence of coastal pond breaching on stopping and mitigating dangerous algal blooms. Her work focuses on the biannual mechanical breaching of Nantucket’s Sesachacha Pond to the ocean and the resultant influence on the pond’s water high quality. This observe goals to enhance water high quality and mitigate dangerous algal blooms (HABs), particularly in summer season.
Breaching in coastal ponds is a course of that was initially used to boost salinity for herring and shellfish habitats, however has since shifted to deal with water high quality issues. Historically, an excavator creates a breach within the pond, which naturally closes inside one to 5 days, influenced by sediment transport and climate circumstances. Excessive winds and waves can speed up sediment motion, limiting ocean water alternate and probably rising eutrophication, the place extreme vitamins result in dense plant progress and depletion of oxygen. In brackish water environments, dangerous algal blooms are sometimes pushed by elevated nitrogen ranges and better temperatures, with increased nitrogen concentrating resulting in extra frequent and extreme blooms as temperatures rise.
The Nantucket Pure Assets Division (NRD) has been collaborating with native owners to analyze the pond breaching course of. Present knowledge are primarily anecdotal proof and NRD’s month-to-month sampling since 2022, which has not proven the anticipated lower in eutrophication. Brooks’ analysis will concentrate on knowledge earlier than, throughout, and after the breach at two pond websites to evaluate water adjustments to judge its effectiveness in bettering water high quality.
When Brooks isn’t knee-deep within the waters of the Sesachacha or coaching along with her MIT Triathlon group, she takes further alternatives to additional her schooling. Final yr, Brooks participated within the MIT-Portugal Marine Robotics Summer time Faculty in Faial, Azores, in Portugal, and immersed herself in a mix of a hands-on design initiatives and lectures on quite a lot of matters associated to oceanography, engineering, and marine robotics.
“My favourite a part of this system was how interdisciplinary it was. We had a mix of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, laptop scientists, marine biologists, and oceanographers, and we had groups that included every of those specialties,” she says. “Our mission concerned designing a lander outfitted with an underwater digicam linked to a floor buoy that will transmit the footage. Having labored in largely simply engineering groups beforehand, it was an ideal expertise to work with a extra numerous group and I gained a significantly better understanding of how you can design devices and programs in accordance with what the marine biologists want.”
Brooks additionally earned her Half 107 Small Unmanned Plane System (UAS) license to function the lab’s drone with a multispectral digicam for her upcoming fieldwork. When she graduates from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program subsequent September, she’ll report back to the Naval Aviation Faculties Command in Pensacola, Florida, to start flight coaching.
Whereas she says she’ll miss Boston’s attraction and historical past, in addition to the Shining Sea Bikeway on crisp fall days in Woods Gap, Brooks is wanting ahead to placing her uniform again on, and beginning her naval profession and flight college. The time Brooks has spent at MIT will assist her in these future endeavors. She advises others keen on the same path to concentrate on analysis inside their areas of curiosity.
“The largest lesson that I’ve discovered from each analysis theses is that any analysis mission will change over time, and it’s usually a good suggestion to take a step again and take a look at how your work suits into the bigger image,” she says. “I couldn’t suggest doing analysis extra; it’s such an ideal alternative to dig into one thing that you simply’re keen on, and can also be very fulfilling.”
