Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer-in Residence; former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Garnett Stokes, Dean, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Nationally recognized scientists will give a brief overview of the current state of knowledge in their respective fields and discuss how research has been shared and coordinated following the spill.

Moderator: Mark Schrope, Freelance Writer for Nature; author, The Blowout Experiment: Tracking the Oil, Science, and Stories of the Gulf Catastrophe (2011)

Panelists:

• Foodweb Joe Montoya, Professor of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Montoya is a biological oceanographer who studies nutrient dynamics of open ocean and coastal systems. In August and September, he was the chief scientist on the R/V Oceanus, which sampled the water column and sediments in a broad area of the Northern Gulf of Mexico, including the waters immediately around the wellhead, to assess ecosystem level impacts of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
• Estuarine nursery Monty Graham, Senior Marine Scientist, Dauphin Island Marine Lab, and Associate Professor of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama
Dr. Graham studies the ecology and biology of gelatinous zooplankton (includes jellyfish). He is researching emerging effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the food web in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Marsh Irv Mendelssohn, Professor of Oceanography, Louisiana State University
Dr. Mendelssohn’s research interests are environmental stressors on plant distribution and productivity, and the effects of disturbance on the ecology and restoration of wetlands. He has published extensively on oil impacts to wetland vegetation and oil spill remediation methods. He serves as an advisor to BP on wetland issues related to the Deepwater Horizon spill, including assisting Federal and State Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees and BP with impact assessment and restoration of shoreline vegetation and wetlands.
• Deep sea benthos Chuck Fisher, Professor of Biology, Penn State University
Dr. Fisher studies deep water coral and seep communities in the Gulf of Mexico. He has participated in 3 research cruises to observe the impacts of oil and dispersants on the Gulf sea floor. He was chief scientist on a submersible dive that observed coral die-offs in an area where deepwater plumes were discovered last spring.
• Offshore plumes Samantha Joye, Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Dr. Joye, a biogeochemist who studies deep water seeps in the Gulf, was among the first to identify deepwater plumes. Subsequently, she participated in several research cruises in the Gulf, including submersible dives to the seafloor near the wellhead to observe the impacts of the spill.

Representatives of industries and communities affected by the oil spill will discuss its socio-economic impacts and the challenges of accessing and providing information on a local level.

Moderator: Charles Hopkinson, Director, Georgia Sea Grant, and Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia

Panelists:

• Community Responses LaDon Swann, Director, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, and Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center
Dr. Swann coordinated engagement between NOAA and MASGC constituents during the spill, and with the Mississippi Gulf of Mexico Commission members for the recovery plan in Alabama and Mississippi.
• Economic impact Rex Caffey, Professor of Natural Resource Economics at LSU, Director of LSU Center for Natural Resource Economics & Policy and Extension Professor for Louisiana Sea Grant
Dr. Caffey will discuss economic implications of the Gulf oil spill on coastal fisheries and estuarine wetlands.
• Tourism Herb Malone, Executive Director, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism
Alabama’s Gulf Coast was the epicenter of the Deepwater Horizon’s effect on the Gulf Coast’s tourism economy. As the CEO of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach’s Destination Marketing Organization, Herb Malone led the effort to obtain and disseminate accurate, up-to-date information on area conditions to both tourism industry partners and potential travelers.
• Buck Sutter, Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, NOAA Fisheries

Representatives of the news media will discuss how they covered the oil spill and share their ideas for improving the reporting of complex and controversial scientific matters.

Moderator: Patricia Thomas, Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia

Panelists:

• Justin Gillis, Reporter, New York Times, and UGA alumnus
Justin Gillis, an environmental science writer for The New York Times, broke the story that undersea plumes of oil droplets had been detected after the Deepwater Horizon spill, and aggressively questioned the initial lowball estimates of the flow rate from the well. With colleagues, he produced the most complete reconstruction of what happened the night of the explosion, as well as the most thorough journalistic account of what is known about the long-term damage from oil spills.
• Laurie Wiegler, Freelance Environmental / Science Reporter, New Haven, CT
Journalist Laurie Wiegler has reported on a number of environmental and other scientific topics as well as green living for dozens of publications worldwide including IEEE’s Spectrum, IET’s Engineering & Technology and Scientific American. Based in Connecticut, Laurie spent part of last August in New Orleans reporting from the Gulf for Examiner.com/New Orleans as well as the publication’s National Oil Spill Wildlife section.
• MaryLynn Ryan, Southeast Bureau Chief, CNN
MaryLynn Ryan is the bureau chief of the Southeast region for CNN/U.S. and director of CNN’s Weather Unit. Based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta, Ryan oversees the network’s editorial direction of coverage for the Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, and Dallas bureaus and the weather team. She shepherded CNN’s extensive coverage of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster, Fort Hood shooting, the Virginia Tech massacre and the Terry Schiavo story; was an integral part of the network’s award winning Hurricane Katrina reporting; and as managing editor of CNN/U.S., oversaw news events such as the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy and the war in Iraq.
• Richard Harris, Reporter, National Public Radio (NPR)
As a science correspondent at NPR, Harris focused on efforts to measure the flow of the oil, and efforts to close off the blown-out well. His reporting revealed that the initial oil-flow rates were low by about an order of magnitude, according to independent scientific assessments that he stimulated. He accompanied UGA’s Samantha Joye in a submersible to the sea floor near the wellhead to report first-hand about the effects of the spill at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Representatives from government and industry will discuss their role in coordinating research and the flow of information, as well as offer their perspectives on how to strengthen collaborations among stakeholders.

Moderator: Laurie Fowler, Associate Dean, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia

Panelists:

• Steve Murawski, former NOAA Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor; Peter R. Betzer research professor at the University of South Florida
• Ray Jakubczak, senior consultant for Cardno-Entrix, contracted by BP to provide scientific services on coral reefs during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and UGA alum
• Justin Kenney, NOAA Director of Communications and External Affairs
Kenney directs NOAA’s office of communications and external affairs. NOAA’s many roles in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill include science support, seafood safety, wildlife protection, assessing damage and restoring habitat.
• Lieutenant Sue Kerver, District Eight Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Coast Guard, and UGA alumna
Lt. Kerver provided public affairs guidance and support by establishing the Deepwater Horizon Response web site (http://www.restorethegulf.gov), disseminating media releases and imagery, and using social media to respond to the thousands of media requests in the first 96 hours of the response. She helped establish the Joint Information Center for the Unified Command, where she served as the press aide for the District Commander, Rear Adm. Mary Landry, the designated Federal On-Scene Coordinator.

Moderator: Rob Williams, Senior Fellow, Fanning Institute, University of Georgia

Panelists:

• Samantha Joye, Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Dr. Joye, a biogeochemist who studies deep water seeps in the Gulf, was among the first to identify deepwater plumes. Subsequently, she participated in several research cruises in the Gulf, including submersible dives to the seafloor near the wellhead to observe the impacts of the spill.
• Justin Gillis, Reporter, New York Times, and UGA alumnus
Justin Gillis, an environmental science writer for The New York Times, broke the story that undersea plumes of oil droplets had been detected after the Deepwater Horizon spill, and aggressively questioned the initial lowball estimates of the flow rate from the well. With colleagues, he produced the most complete reconstruction of what happened the night of the explosion, as well as the most thorough journalistic account of what is known about the long-term damage from oil spills.
• LaDon Swann, Director, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, and Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center
Dr. Swann coordinated engagement between NOAA and MASGC constituents during the spill, and with the Mississippi Gulf of Mexico Commission members for the recovery plan in Alabama and Mississippi.
• Steve Murawski, former NOAA Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor; Peter R. Betzer research professor at the University of South Florida
• Ray Jakubczak, senior consultant for Cardno-Entrix, contracted by BP to provide scientific services on coral reefs during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and UGA alum
• Justin Kenney, NOAA Director of Communications and External Affairs
Kenney directs NOAA’s office of communications and external affairs. NOAA’s many roles in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill include science support, seafood safety, wildlife protection, assessing damage and restoring habitat.

Facilitator: Dorinda Dallmeyer, director of the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program, College of Environment and Design, University of Georgia