Robert L. Wiegel Scholarship for Coastal Studies

Applications now open for 2021

Applications due October 15, 2021. Click here for further details.

In 2002, the California Shore and Beach Preservation Association (CSBPA) established “The Robert L. Wiegel Scholarship for Coastal Studies”, named for Bob Wiegel, Professor Emeritus of Coastal Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Annual awards varying from $1,000 to $4,000 have been made to students pursuing graduate marine studies at a California university or college. A CSBPA subcommittee reviews the scholarship applications and grants the award to the student who produces the most outstanding research effort related to coastal problems in the marine environment.

The funds that created the scholarship were donated from private individuals, corporate entities, and the conference earnings of the CSBPA. The Scholarship Fund is held in an endowment that is now managed by the San Diego Foundation. As the endowment fund grows through future donations and earnings, larger annual awards are anticipated. Previous scholarship winners and their diverse study topics are listed below. Donations to the Wiegel Scholarship Fund are greatly appreciated and can be paid by check to the San Diego Foundation at the following address:

San Diego Foundation
2508 Historic Decatur Road,
#200 San Diego, CA 92106
Attn: Wiegel Fund (#4259)

Student applicants for the scholarship can find additional information here.

Past recipients are listed below.

• 2020 Ph.D. Candidate ($2,400):

  • Boxiang Tang, UCLA, “Numerical Simulation of Coastal Flooding from Multiple Factors”

• 2020 Masters Candidate ($2,400):

  • Federick Pinongcos, San Diego State, “Using Chemical and Biological Markers to Track Anthropogenic Sources of Contamination in an Urban River in Southern California”

• 2019 Ph.D. Candidates (2 awards at $1,500 each):

  • Jasmin McInerney, University of California Davis, “Internal Wave Induced Sediment Resuspension”

  • Ryan Searcy, Stanford, “Expanding an Early Warning “Nowcast” System for California Beach Water Quality to Data-Poor Beaches”

• 2019 Masters Candidates (2 awards at $1,000 each):

  • Ariel Heyman, California State University Fullerton, “Response of Intertidal Rockweed to Sea Level Rise”

  • Marcel Peliks, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories/San Jose State University, “Sediment Flux at the Head of Monterey Canyon”

• 2018 First Place ($2,000): Marie-Pierre Delisle, UCLA: “Coastal Flooding Impacts of Coupled Groundwater and Wave Overtopping Processes”

  • 2018 Runners-Up: (2 awards at $1,000 each): Maria Winters, UCLA: “Optimizing Artificial Dunes for Wave-Dominated Environments” and  Shelby Moshier, Fresno State: “The Impact of Coastal Dredging on Avian and Beach Macroinvertebrate Biodiversity in Morro Bay, California”

• 2017 ($4,000) Christina Richardson, UC Santa Cruz: “C, N, P, and Se loads from agricultural drainage into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta”

• 2016 ($4,000) Karen Lykkebo Petersen, UC Santa Cruz: “Impacts of effluent from Carlsbad Desalination Plant on the coastal biology and chemistry – an in-situ study of pre- and post-discharge.”

• 2015 ($3,000) Christie Hegermiller, UC Santa Cruz: “Coastal Response to Projected 21st Century Wave Conditions”

• 2014 (2 Awards @ $1,500 each) Julia Fiedler, UC San Diego (Scripps): “Wave Run-up and Water Table on a Nourished Southern California Beach” and Kai Hally-Rosendahl, UC San Diego (Scripps): “Improving California Beach Management: Coastal Water Quality Monitoring”

• 2013 ($2,500 Award) Simon Ho Chuen Wong, Stanford University: “Wave Driven Transport in Nearshore Marine Environments”

• 2012 ($1,500 Award) Robert S. Arthur, Stanford University: “Multi-scale Hydrodynamic Processes Affecting Cross-Shore Transport in Monterey Bay”

• 2011 ($1,250 via San Diego Foundation) Ms. Timu Gallien, UC Irvine, : “Parcel-Scale Urban Coastal Flooding Model, Newport Harbor, CA”

• 2010 ($1,000 via San Diego Foundation) Nick de Sieyes, Stanford University, : “Evaluation of Septic System Effluent Discharge in a Coastal Aquiver, Stinson Beach, CA”

• 2009 ($1,000 via San Diego Foundation) Dmitri Jarocki, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo: “Ocean Wave Energy”

• 2008 (2 Awards @ $1,000 each) Heather D’Anna, San Diego State University: “Copper Contamination in National City Marina, San Diego”, and Kate Dallas, UC Santa Cruz: “Linking Sediment Management Practices, Ebb-tidal Delta Evolution, and Shoreline Change in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System”

• 2007 (2 Awards @ $1,000 each via San Diego Foundation) Marissa L. Yates, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego: “Sand Level and Wave Variability on Southern California Beaches”, and Nicole E. M. Kinsman, UC Santa Cruz: “California Shoreline Sand Retention: Existing Retention Structures and Future Potential”

• 2006 ($1,000 via San Diego Foundation) Brian Cheng, San Diego State University: “Invasion Resistance of Eelgrass Beds: Relative Effects of Predation, Habitat Configuration, Recruitment, and Disturbance”

• 2005 ($1,000 via CSBPA) Adam Young, Department of Structural Engineering, UC San Diego: “LIDAR Applications for Evaluating Coastal Bluff Morphology”

• 2004 ($1,000 via CSBPA) Carla D. Chenault, UC Santa Cruz: “History of Long-Term Beach Width Change, Oceanside Littoral Cell, California”

• 2003- No awards

• 2002 ($1,000 via CSBPA) Elizabeth Watson, UC Berkeley: “Sea Level Rise in a Tidal Marsh Near San Jose, California”