Message from the President
Spring is officially here! The trees and flowers are blooming, the temperature is rising, and many of us are heading outdoors to enjoy this wonderful time of year. Spring signifies new beginnings everywhere, including AERS. I am delighted to assume the position of AERS President for the next two years, and I look forward to a prosperous year for the society. Thanks to Past-President Mark Brush for his leadership these past two years! Job well done, Mark! We had yet another dynamically successful meetings back in March. This meeting happened to be one of the largest in recent history, with an engaging program, impressive keynote speakers, generous sponsors and a record number of student travel awardees.
On all fronts our society is doing quite well. Our membership remains steady, our financials stable and strong, and we are closer than ever to resolving our tax-exempt status. Now is as good of a time as ever to be an AERS member, and over the next couple of years we will be focusing on retaining current members while continuing to welcome new members to our wonderful society and CERF. Encourage your colleagues and students to join today! As spring flows into summer, we will be planning for our fall meeting. Stay tuned for more information. Continue to enjoy this beautiful time of year and I look forward to seeing you in Atlantic City!
Spring 2014 Meeting Recap
The Fall 2014 in Ocean City was fantastic! The meeting was data-centric and synoptic, emphasizing data infrastructures. Our five keynote speakers Walter Boynton (University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science Chesapeake Bay Laboratory), Bill Dennison (University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science), Holly Greening (Tampa Bay National Estuary Program), Denise Breitburg (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center), and Anne Thessen (Arizona State University) did a superb job to illustrating current examples of data management infrastructures and best practices for data sharing and integration. In all, we had 154 attendees with 32 contributed talks (12 by students), and over 50 contributed posters (30 by students).
Due to the generosity of the membership, sponsors and the recently established Ann C. Powel Student Travel Endowment (thanks to Chris Jones’ commitment to support AERS students), a total of 23 student travel awards were awarded to the following students:
- Golala Arya (George Mason University, Graduate)
- Amanda Biederman (Salisbury University, Undergraduate)
- Emily Egginton (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Graduate)
- Cassie Gurbisz (University of Maryland, Graduate)
- Rachel Hagar (Bryn Mawr University, Undergraduate)
- Andrea Korell (Salisbury University, Undergraduate)
- Kelly Kunsch (Mary Washington University, Undergraduate)
- Michael Kuschner (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Graduate)
- Dorothea Lundberg (University of Maryland, Graduate)
- Cameron Myers (Community College of Baltimore County, Undergraduate)
- Joshua Moody (Drexel University, Graduate)
- Kristyn Moskey (George Mason University, Graduate)
- Allison Ruglia (St. Mary’s College, Undergraduate)
- Catherine Schlick (George Mason University, Graduate)
- Amanda Sills (George Mason University, Graduate)
- Matthew Stone (Delaware State University, Graduate)
- Alexander Stuffer (Salisbury University, Undergraduate)
- Jennifer Teson (Millersville University, Undergraduate)
- Spencer Tassone (Virginia Commonwealth University, Undergraduate)
- Brendan Trache (Virginia Commonwealth University, Undergraduate)
- Jennifer Walker (St. Mary’s College, Undergraduate)
- Joe Wood (Virginia Commonwealth University, Graduate)
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Recipients of the Spring 2014 AERS Student Travel Awards.
(Photo Credit: David Yozzo)
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Congratulations to the following four student travel awardees who won awards for their presentations:
Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation
Rachel Hager, Bryn Mawr College
Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation
Spencer Tassone, Virginia Commonwealth University
Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation
Josh Moody, Drexel University
Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation
Dorothea Lundberg, University of Maryland
During the Business Meeting, there was an election in which Sam Lake was elected the new AERS Treasurer. Thanks to Judith Stribling (Salisbury University), Frank Reilly (LMI), Danielle Kreeger (Partnership for the Delaware Estuary), Ben Fertig (Community College of Baltimore County), and Dave Wilson (Maryland Coastal Bays Program) for an outstanding job serving as our local coordinators and planning field trips, to AERS Past-President Mark Brush (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) and President Treda Grayson (US EPA) for their leadership, to Past AERS Treasurer Bryce Brylawski (Albright College) for managing finances, and to AERS Webmaster Chris Heyer (Xylem Inc.) for online registration and abstract submission. Finally many thanks go to Ben Fertig (Community College of Baltimore County), Sam Lake (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), Jeremy Testa (University of Maryland) and Britt Dean (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) for all of their hard work planning and implementing the meeting program.
Fall 2014 Meeting Planning Underway
The wheels are turning to plan the Fall Meeting and we will be returning to Atlantic City, NJ! Pete Straub (Stockton University) has been leading the effort to plan a dynamite meeting with a theme centered on restoration and resilience of the ecosystem in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Meeting details will become available this summer! We hope to see you in Atlantic City!
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