COSEE CGOM - Upcoming Presentations

MISSISSIPPI

The Mississippi Community Forum was held at three locations on Thursday, October, 20, 2011:

Department of Marine Resources
Museum of Natural Science
University of Mississippi

During the 90-minute, free forum, participants heard from experts on topics that relate to ongoing oil spill research i.e. short- and long-term effects of/on basic oil pollution, marine mammals and fisheries. Following the panel presentation, a short question and answer session followed.

Video segments from this event are below:

You can download a printable PDF the PowerPoint presentations that were given by each scientist at the following links:

This program featured the the following experts:

Dr. Phillip Lee		Dr. Lee was born in Oklahoma and received a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. He then pursued graduate studies in marine biology and received his M.S. from the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, FL. His thesis concerned the digestive physiology of freshwater shrimp. He continued his graduate studies at the Shrimp Mariculture Program located at Texas A&M University. He graduated with his Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition; his dissertation focused on the nutrition and digestive physiology of marine shrimp. Dr. Lee’s first faculty position was at South Carolina State University. He soon joined the Marine Biomedical Institute of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston TX. He conducted research with a wide variety of marine organisms especially cephalopods (squids, octopuses and cuttlefishes). He became the Director of the National Institute’s of Health’s National Resource Center for Cephalopods in 1995. This program supplied these unique model organisms to biomedical scientists. In addition, he pursued research in nutrition and bioengineering of marine systems and taught biochemistry to medical students. He has published more than 75 scientific publications and 12 US patents. Dr. Lee has recently joined the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs MS; his research will focus on early life history of marine fish and development of hatchery technology at the Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center.

Dr. Moby Solangi		Dr. Moby Solangi is the President and Executive Director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. He founded the organization in 1984 to promote marine research, conservation and education. Dr. Solangi received his Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1980. He has conducted pioneering research on dolphins both in the wild and under human care. His research experience includes work in pathobiology, disease diagnoses and control, aquaculture, water-quality management, marine ecology, and marine mammal behavior, husbandry and veterinary care. In addition, Dr. Solangi serves as adjunct faculty at multiple universities and accordingly has supervised graduate students conducting research on marine mammals. His professional associations include membership in the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine, Society for Marine Mammalogy, and the International Marine Animal Trainers Association. Dr. Solangi has an extensive list of publications ranging over multiple scientific disciplines.

Mr. Joe Jewell		Mr. Joe Jewell is the deputy director of the Office of Marine Fisheries in the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. He is also a biologist for the US Army Corps of Engineers. A retired US Coast Guard seaman, he has professional assications with the Mississippi Beach Monitoring Task Force, the Advisory Council for the Mississippi/Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the Mississippi Coast Basin Team, the Mississippi Pascagoula Basin Team, the Mississippi Food Safety Task Force and is a member of the Mississippi Association of Personnel Administrators.

Dr. Kristie Willett		Dr. Kristie Willett is an assoicate professor of Pharmacology at the University of Mississippi. She has been studying the environmental effects of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. This includes monthly sampling at sites along the MS coast. Through a series of bioassay and analytical chemistry measurements of site sediment and water contaminants temporal and special trends of hurricane and oil spill effects are being determined. Most recently she has begun to investigate toxicity in affected species including oysters and seagrasses.

Ms. Joelle Carney		Joelle Carney is a conservation biologist for the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, MS. She is interested in using the tools of forestry, wildlife, and spatial analysis (remote sensing and GIS) to address issues of conservation of Mississippi’s Threatened and Endangered Species. Her current research projects involves mapping and estimating the distribution of terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates using the Natural Heritage Program (NHP) species occurrence records for developing a landscape level monitoring process of Mississippi’s Species of Greatest Conservation Needs (SGCN) under the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS).