By Hailey Murphy, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.
Sefah-Twerefour in the field deploying a Slocum glider—a self-navigating underwater vehicle that collects and transmits audio recordings for Robots4Whales. Photo courtesy of Amadi Afua Sefah-Twerefour.
The South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium is pleased to share that Amadi Afua Sefah-Twerefour has been selected as a 2026 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship finalist. The Knauss Fellowship is a one-year paid opportunity for current and recent graduates from advanced degree programs with a focus or interest in marine and coastal science, policy, or management. Students apply to one of the 33 eligible Sea Grant programs.
“I thrive on tackling interdisciplinary challenges, empowering others to reach their goals, and exploring the world through travel,” Sefah-Twerefour says.
Sefah-Twerefour earned her B.Sc. in Biological Sciences with a major in Oceanography & Fisheries from the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. As an undergraduate, she participated in the Research Experience for Undergraduates in Oceans, Marine and Polar Science (REU-OMPS) program as an exchange student, gaining research experience at the Center for Remote Sensing & Integrated Systems (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas and the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education & Research (CERSER) at Elizabeth City State University. During this REU, she and her research team designed and built a GPS-guided watercraft.
Her interest in human impacts on marine ecosystems led her to focus her undergraduate senior thesis on oil spill detection from synthetic aperture radar satellite imagery. After graduation, she continued this research at the Remote Sensing Unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria, South Africa, through the Europe-Africa Marine Earth Observation Network (EAMNet) Fellowship. She went on to earn her M.Sc. in Ocean Engineering from the University of Ulsan, South Korea, where she focused on numerical modeling of structural response to vibrations. She also pursued Korean language studies at Kyung Hee University’s Institute of International Education (IIE).
Sefah-Twerefour is currently in the final year of her Marine Science Ph.D. program at the University of South Carolina (USC), where she works in the Conservation Oceanography Lab. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on regional variations in anthropogenic risks to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, as well as patterns in news media coverage and policies regarding the species. She leads the Right Whale News Media Communication & Policy Project, which explores how science communication and policy both impact—and are impacted by—threat mitigation efforts for endangered species. Additionally, she serves as a bioacoustic analyst on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Robots4Whales project, where she analyzes near-real-time acoustic detections from buoy systems deployed in Norfolk, VA; Charleston, S.C.; and Savannah, GA. These detections are relayed to stakeholders, including NOAA and mariners, to prevent ship-whale collisions.
During her Knauss Fellowship, Sefah-Twerefour hopes to contribute to marine resource policy development while learning and gaining firsthand experience in how scientific evidence, stakeholder engagement, negotiation, and regulatory processes converge to shape conservation outcomes.
The 2026 cohort of 48 early-career professionals represents 40 universities and 26 Sea Grant programs. The finalists will spend the next year working alongside federal agencies or legislative offices in Washington, D.C., applying their academic expertise to critical marine, coastal, and Great Lakes policy issues.
The 2026 finalists will participate in professional development opportunities, build their networks, and have mentorship opportunities. Later this month, the finalists will participate in the placement process, where they will connect with each other and potential host offices. The 47th class of Knauss fellows will officially begin their fellowships in June 2026, joining a network of more than 1,762 professionals. Placement of the 2026 Knauss finalists as fellows is contingent upon adequate funding in fiscal year 2026.
Learn more about the Knauss Fellowship and hear from current and past fellows about their experiences.
For questions, please reach out to Susannah Sheldon, Research and Fellowships Manager.