BACKGROUND: A decade has passed since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Following the spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) granted researchers in Texas and around the world $500 million to “investigate the impacts of the oil, dispersed oil, and dispersant on the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico.” In addition to supporting the work of scientists and students across the state, GoMRI partnered with the Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant programs (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi-Alabama, and Florida) to translate the science of oil spills to the public.

WHAT: The Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Team will showcase the many accomplishments of GoMRI in Texas at the virtual event, “GoMRI and Texas: Celebration of a 10-year partnership.”

Read more on the Oil Spill Science Outreach website.

WHERE: Online via Zoom. Register at https://gulfseagrant.org/texas-gomri-showcase/

WHEN: Friday, September 25, at 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CDT.

SPEAKERS AND PANELSTS:

• Rita Colwell, Chair of the GoMRI Research Board
• Laura Bowie, Executive Director, Gulf of Mexico Alliance
• Chuck Wilson, GoMRI Chief Scientific Officer
• Raymond L. Orbach, GoMRI Research Board member from the state of Texas, The University of Texas at Austin
• Larry McKinney, Senior Executive Director of Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
• Antonietta Quigg, Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, Texas A&M University at Galveston
• James Gibeaut, Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (GRIIDC), Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
• Tony Wood, Director of the National Spill Control School, Corpus Christi
• Steve Buschang, Director of Research and Development/ Scientific Support Coordinator, Texas General Land Office
• Pamela Plotkin, Director, Texas Sea Grant

 

Media contacts:

• Dani Bailey, Texas Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Specialist, 361-825-6215,
   bailey@exchange.tamu.edu.
• Tara Skelton, Oil Spill Science Outreach Team Communicator, 228-818-8825, Tara.Skelton@usm.edu