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Cora McQuaid graduated from East Carolina University in May 2024 with an engineering degree and a concentration in bioprocessing. Bioprocessing, as she explained, is the biological version of chemical engineering, where you take biological materials and make useful products and processes.

“I wasn’t interested in the bio-pharmaceutical realm, which the school pushed, but more of the crossover, where human interaction and science meet. So I started working on as many projects as I could that were related to the environment, water, the ocean, and wave energy. While in school I was fortunate enough to do some work at the Coastal Studies Institute and National Renewable Energy Lab at the Outer Banks. Working with my professor and mentor, we studied how much energy could be generated by the Gulf Stream with wave energy. We also tested a giant floating buoy that took energy from the waves and used it to create power that could be used to desalinate ocean water and produce clean drinking water.”

Following graduation, she wanted to “play a little bit” and headed to the San Juan Islands in Washington State where she worked as a sea kayaking guide. When the summer season ended she returned to Washington, NC where her parents now reside and are retired. “I was looking for something to keep me busy, while I looked for a job, which is how I ended up at the Estuarium,” said McQuaid. “I started as a volunteer doing a little of everything. One thing led to another and they offered me a part-time internship.”

In the meantime, McQuaid continued her job search. And, like any young energetic student in search of their first job, she sent resumes out “all over the place” which included Scripps in San Diego.

“Scripps is an oceanography institute that I had in the back of my mind for a long time,” said McQuaid. “Many of my mentors and professors in college would talk about it often. So when I saw the job opening I thought this was the perfect fit for me.”

And so did the folks at Scripps as she received the call she was hoping for this spring. “I was elated when I received the call that they wanted to interview me,” said McQuaid. “It all went well and I will be starting my new job on May 1 of this year.”

McQuaid said she will assist with hands-on oceanographic deployments using their “cool” oceanography instruments, doing engineering work associated with it, and working with an interdisciplinary, collaborative team. “This position checked all of the boxes I was looking for,” said McQuaid. “And on top of all of that, I will get to go offshore on an Arctic icebreaker four months out of each year. I will be helping to deploy their oceanographic instrumentation and making sure that everything is running properly and that all of the data being collected is getting back to the scientists for the research they are conducting.”

Added Katie McCullough, curator of the North Carolina Estuarium, “ It has been great having Cora here. She was always willing to jump in and do whatever we needed to get done. She started as a volunteer and kept asking if she could do more so we made her a part-time intern. I’m going to be sad when she leaves, and I sure will miss her. But, I’m also very excited for her.”