2012 Oceans and Human Health GRC/GRS

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support the 2012 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Oceans and Human Health, the third GRC in this series. This year's Conference will feature sessions on seafood, aquaculture, natural disasters, climate change, metagenomics, microbiomes, transcriptomics, forecasting and remote sensing, changes in fecal indicator detection and emerging chemicals of concern as they relate to human health, public communications. It will also address how to communicate ocean-borne health risks and benefits to the public. Finally, it will have a short session on the Deepwater Horizon to update the conferees on what research and restoration has transpired since the April 2010 oil blowout in Macondo Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the future of OHH in the U.S. and Europe will be discussed. As is the case with all GRC events, this conference and seminar will assemble highly qualified experts for the several session areas, and these experts will present newly discovered information to junior scientists and graduate students in a very relaxed atmosphere. Broader Impacts. In addition to the Intellectual Merit of formal presentations and posters by world-class experts, the GRC on OHH will provide opportunities to graduate students and postdocs for "one-on-one" discussions about OHH topics. Although initially focused largely on issues related to U.S. coastal waters, this OHH conference is expanding to include international topics, with a greater diversity of invited participants and future venues possibly alternating between the U.S. and other countries. Finally, the Conference will also endeavor to attract underrepresented conferees. Under the rules of the Gordon Research Conference, no publications may result from this or any Gordon Conference, to encourage a free exchange of cutting edge scientific ideas. Thus there will be no published abstracts or proceedings from this Conference.