Ping-Ponging Across Mississippi

This week I have been going across Mississippi for multiple events, including a county board presentation and press conference and to talk with students about our paid summer internship program at GCRL. Our Tipping Points report completed the review process and we presented this work to the Harrison County board of supervisors on Monday and then fielded questions from the press about this work. While the press did not ask either of the biologists on the project any questions, they were curious about what our results mean, how these results may be used in future management of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, and what's next for our research team. You can read one of the official press releases here on my research page, and I will add an additional link to the published report once we have it submitted to Aquila (the report within the press release is the actual and completed report). 

I also spent Wednesday at Jackson State University, where I spoke with some students who participated in our coastal experience trip about the paid summer internship that Kim and I are supervising in a few months. I got to talk with the students about my career path, how changing career directions can be fruitful, and how small opportunities and trying new things can lead to unexpected rewards. Their professor mentioned that next week, these students will work on polishing their CVs and personal statements before they apply to the internship program, and I am excited that so many of them seemed interested in spending a few months with us down on the coast to conduct field work in the Mississippi Sound. 

Next week I will be in the field for our lab's bi-monthly water quality sampling research. As of now, the weather looks great with temperatures in the low- to mid-70s and no rain, so let's hope it does not change. Stay tuned for next week's update on technical details related to this water quality research and hopefully some good new pictures from our time in the field.