I’m off to a conference like no other I have been to, like no other that has ever been offered!  This is the first joint Geological Society of America Penrose/American Geophysical Union Chapman conference, being held in Galveston, Texas, April 14-19.  The title: Coastal Processes and Environments Under Sea-Level Rise and Changing Climate: Science to Inform Management.  I am one of 75 scientists from 10 different countries selected to participate – you can imagine how thrilled and honored I am to be accepted for this opportunity, and to have an opportunity to present a poster at the conference.

We have very specific objectives for the conference (quoted directly from one of the conference leaders):

1.     to provide a forum for discussing the latest advances in coastal systems response to both natural and anthropogenic influences,

2.     to generate a consensus statement from this esteemed, international body of scientists that coastal change is occurring now and in many areas at an alarming pace,

3.     to assure that the outcome of this meeting is conveyed to the general public and to policy makers.

You might be wondering…. why Galveston?  Although I haven’t spoken directly to any of the conference organizers as to why this site was chosen, to those students that have taken my courses that cover natural disasters and oceanography, I’m sure this location makes sense for a meeting addressing coastal processes (if you need a refresher, please visit these websites describing the 1900 hurricane from The Galveston County Daily News, NOAA, The New York Times, and view the amazing video footage shot by Thomas Edison’s team below).

What I think excites me most is to spend the week with a group of fellow geoscientists passionate about the coastal zone, our changing planet, and the importance of communicating the past, present, and future of these regions.  I can’t wait for the sessions to get started!  If you are going to follow the conference in Twitter, search for the hashtag #PC13TX.