02/02/2003

The storm waves that smashed through the pier at Bonnet Shores carried Brian D. Melzian's doctoral research gear along with it.

Melzian, an oceanographer who was studying the effects of oil on marine life, was walking along the shore the day after the storm when he spotted what looked like the tanks from his lab at the University of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay Campus.

When he returned to his lab, he discovered that the storm had swept away the tanks and research equipment that he had painstakingly assembled during the previous three years -- taking much of the building with it.

Adding insult to injury, bits and pieces of his equipment kept washing up on the beach in the days that followed.

Melzian was no stranger to adversity, however. In 1975, thieves broke into his lab and stole every one of the 150 blue crabs that he was using in his research. A year later, the impending arrival of Hurricane Belle forced him to dismantle his entire lab, another time-consuming setback.

Melzian refused to abandon his thesis. As a scientist, he was trained to take the long view and so, when The Journal interviewed him a month after the storm, he said he planned to rebuild.

"It got me down for awhile," he said at the time, "but I'm persistant by nature. That's the way you have to be in research."