CONTACT:  Patricia Viets            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Grayson Wood              8/11/97
          
          

Heather Smith, an outstanding high school graduate from Gloucester, Va., is spending her summer as an intern at the National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory in Narragansett, R.I., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.

Smith is working with scientists from NOAA's CoastWatch program. Through its internship program, CoastWatch is promoting the operational use and application of satellite remote sensing information. Smith is working on several projects, one involving the seasonal timing of the arrival of three species of sharks in Southern New England waters, another developing a time-series of temperature values near the outfall of a bayside power plant.

Smith, who will attend Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in the fall, has an outstanding academic record. She received first place honors in the 1996 Virginia Junior Academy of Sciences Competition in the Earth and Space Science Division. Her work involved a paper on sea-surface temperature patterns and their effect on bluefish migration. During the project she received guidance from two professors at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, while demonstrating her own creative talent and interest in the field of environmental science.

Smith served as an officer in the Key Club, Science Club, National Beta Club and the National Honor Society. She was on her school's hockey team for three years, worked part-time at a local pharmacy, and took a lead role in many community organizations. Last November she was selected a Youth Member of Operation Smile's Vietnam Mission, and later spent a week in Vietnam assisting a medical team that was providing reconstructive surgery for children with facial deformities.

Smith is enjoying her internship with NOAA and plans to maintain contact with the agency while attending college.