Addressing oceanfront coastal erosion, understanding harmful algal blooms, fostering community engagement and tracking emerging contaminants are just a few of the topics North Carolina Sea Grant will cover during its biennial two-day conference taking place this year in November.
The North Carolina Coastal Conference is scheduled for Nov. 17-18 at the Friday Conference Center at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and brings together agency, business and community representatives, researchers, educators, students and others with an interest in learning about coastal issues.
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The keynote speaker this year is Dr. Jamie Vernon, executive director and CEO of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, and publisher of American Scientist, an illustrated bimonthly publication about science, engineering and technology that has been printed since 1913.
Cost for the conference is $350 or $125 for full-time students. Those interested in attending can register online now. Sea Grant has reserved blocks of rooms at two hotels with discounted rates for those needing accommodations. Details are on the conference logistics page on the website. Hotel reservations must be made by 5 p.m. Oct. 26 to qualify for the discount.
The conference serves as a “platform for engaging with like-minded participants and potential collaborators dedicated to the prosperity of our state’s coastal communities, environments, and economies,” organizers said.
Also scheduled to speak are North Carolina Sea Grant Executive Director Susan White, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson, and Amanda McCarty, who is performing the duties of the director of the National Sea Grant College Program and National Sea Grant Office with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The draft agenda includes a range of coastal topics so far, including a discussion on addressing chronic erosion along the state’s ocean shoreline with panelists Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac, Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel chair and UNC-Chapel Hill professor Laura Moore, N.C. Coastal Federation’s Coastal Advocate Lela Schlenker, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Doug Piatkowski, and Jessica Hardee with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
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Also planned during the two-day conference are talks on recent coastal laws and policies, the connection between seagrass habitat and fisheries production in estuaries, climate change, sea level rise, algal blooms, nature-based solutions, water quality, public science efforts, resilience education, living shorelines, benefits of salt marshes, oyster reef restoration, stormwater, flood mitigation, wastewater, contamination, and the blue economy.
Vernon has been on the Sigma Xi staff since 2014, serving as director of science communications and editor-in-chief of the magazine. Vernon served as a fellow 2011-2013 with American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy and 2013-2014 with Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, both within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.
Vernon was co-chair of the digital media team of the Interagency Communication and Education Team of the United States Global Change Research Program in Washington, D.C., in 2012-2013. He worked with the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate communications among all federal agencies conducting climate research.
Vernon earned his bachelor’s in zoology at North Carolina State University, his master’s in molecular biology/biotechnology at East Carolina University, and his doctorate in cell and molecular biology at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds one patent and has seven publications.
