12/04/23: How Environmental Justice Law & Policy Has Been Shaping Great Lakes Protection & Restoration
2023-12-04 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Detroit) | NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, 4840 S State Rd, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
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Time: 1:00-2:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Oday Salim – Environmental Law & Sustainability Clinic Director at the University of Michigan Law School
Title: How Environmental Justice Law & Policy Has Been Shaping Great Lakes Protection & Restoration

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About the presentation: There is an all too common misconception that environmental justice law is vague and toothless. In fact, environmental justice law is nearly ubiquitous and has been significantly altering environmental decision-making norms. This talk will address the ways that environmental justice law has already shaped and may in the future shape Great Lakes environmental protection and restoration. Specifically, the talk will define environmental justice law, summarize its history, and go through Great Lakes case studies that illustrate how this legal framework alters decision-making regarding pollution control, natural resources management, and energy regulation.
About the speaker: Oday Salim directs the Environmental Law & Sustainability Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, where he also co-directs the Environmental Law & Policy Program and teaches the Environmental Justice seminar. In addition, he is an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation in its Great Lakes Regional Center and the chair of the American Bar Association’s Environmental Justice Committee. Professor Salim has taught courses on environmental justice, energy regulation, and mineral law. As an attorney, his most recent work has addressed water affordability, oil pipelines, Clean Water Act permitting, stormwater management, and the public trust doctrine.
**Registration is not required**
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IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, advance notification of at least 48 hours is needed so that security guidelines are followed. You will need to present your passport (a copy will NOT work). For questions regarding building access, or assistance in obtaining Foreign National clearance, please please call 734-741-2024 or email mike.ryan@noaa.gov. Additional questions? Contact Mary Ogdahl: ogdahlm@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

01/11/24: Plant community dynamics linked to ecosystem biogeochemistry in Great Lakes coastal wetlands: modeling for both basic understanding and management applications
2024-01-11 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00-12:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Bill Currie – Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Engagement in SEAS, University of Michigan
Title: Plant community dynamics linked to ecosystem biogeochemistry in Great Lakes coastal wetlands: modeling for both basic understanding and management applications

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About the presentation: Linking plant community dynamics to ecosystem processes has long been a central theme in ecological modeling. In this seminar, Bill Currie will present the development and applications of the Mondrian model, which was designed to link across four levels of organization in coastal wetlands: individual plant physiology, plant population dynamics, plant community shifts including invasive species, and ecosystem biogeochemistry including C, N and P cycling. Mondrian is an individual-based model in which spatially-explicit plant competition for resources causes emergent population and community dynamics, which respond to wetland N and P inflows while also driving ecosystem N and P cycling including nutrient retention. At the same time it integrates the effects of dynamic water levels, hydroperiod, and water residence time on both plant survival and ecosystem biogeochemistry, including decomposition, C storage, nitrification and denitrification. It has been used to study clonal plant competition broadly from a basic-science perspective as well as the integrated effects of water level and nutrient inflows on the joint outcomes of wetland C budgets and the success or failure of plant invasions in Great Lakes coastal wetlands. The model has also been used in an adaptive management framework to simulate the outcomes of management practices including burning, mowing, and herbicide to control invasive cattails and Phragmites. The Mondrian model was designed to be highly flexible for use by different research groups for a range of research questions and is available open-source.
About the speaker: Bill Currie is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Engagement in SEAS. He is also Co-Director of the Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS). Previously, he chaired the Provost’s Faculty Transition Team to plan the new School for Environment and Sustainability, which opened its doors in 2017. Currie is an elected Fellow of AAAS for his work in ecosystem simulation modeling, in which he models forests, human-dominated landscapes, wetlands and coastal ecosystems, biogeochemistry, and water quality. He collaborates with investigators across a range of fields from wildlife conservation to economics, civil engineering, and urban planning to understand human-environment systems. He is PI on the grant to launch the SEAS Sustainability Clinic in Detroit. Currie teaches sustainability using a variety of case studies drawn from the Great Lakes region.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

01/17/24: Assessing Nutrient Load Reductions in H2Ohio Constructed Wetlands: Case Studies from Brooks Park and the Burntwood-Langenkamp Wetlands
2024-01-17 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Silvia Newell, Director, Michigan Sea Grant and Professor, University of Michigan
Title: Assessing Nutrient Load Reductions in H2Ohio Constructed Wetlands: Case Studies from Brooks Park and the Burntwood-Langenkamp Wetlands

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About the presentation: Wetlands perform critical ecosystem services, including nutrient reduction, flood mitigation, and biodiversity habitat. More than 90% of wetlands in Ohio have been destroyed and most major water bodies in the state now experience annual harmful cyanobacterial blooms. The H2Ohio Initiative in part funds statewide wetland restoration to improve water quality through nutrient reduction. Dr. Newell is one of the H2Ohio Wetland Monitoring Program leads, monitoring water quality at newly constructed wetland or restored wetlands. This talk will focus on nutrient reductions at two wetlands: Brooks Park flowing into Buckeye Lake, a hypereutrophic lake experiencing annual harmful algal blooms. Brooks Park wetland was built at the junction of Murphy’s Run creek into Buckeye Lake, draining a very small watershed (1.2 sq. miles) and behaves as either a flow-through wetland or a coastal wetland depending on precipitation. Preliminary data from the first year of monitoring indicates that the wetland is a sink for total nitrogen (>3000 lbs/yr), but a small source of ammonium (~44 lbs/yr). However, the wetland is a very small source of total phosphorus (~42 lbs/yr), while a sink for soluble reactive phosphorus (~16 lbs/yr). The 90-acre Burntwood-Langenkamp Wetland Conservation Area is located at the confluence of Burntwood and Coldwater Creeks in Mercer County. This site is a former corn/soybean field in the Grand Lake Saint Marys watershed. Water enters the site from Burntwood Creek (BWC) through pump and overflow and then flows through a series of settling ponds and vegetated flats that extend for over a mile. BWC drains approximately 5,700 acres of watershed land and can hold approximately 20 million gallons of water. Total Nitrogen (TN) concentrations at the outflow are approximately 73% lower than the TN inflow concentrations, which average over 16.3 mg N/L for the year 2023. An approximate annual decrease thus far of ~55% in SRP concentration has been seen between the inflow and outflow with outflow concentrations averaging 0.044 mg P/L. Nutrient load reduction will likely vary as the wetlands mature, but data from the first year indicate that both wetlands are already performing a vital ecosystem service.
About the speaker: Silvia Santa Maria Newell is Michigan Sea Grant’s director, based in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. A nutrient biogeochemist and microbial ecologist, Silvia’s own research focuses on the effects of excess nutrients from fertilizer and wastewater on inland and coastal waters, particularly harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie. Her current collaborative work in the Lake Erie watershed focuses on engaging stakeholders (farmers, managers, and policymakers) to develop realistic pathways for nutrient reduction. She has held many leadership positions, including serving as co-chair of the Great Lakes Commission HABs Collaboratory for two years and her current position as President of the Lake Erie Area Research Network.
In addition to serving as MISG director, Silvia also serves as a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

02/07/24: Observing, Characterizing, and Quantifying Wintertime Precipitation Processes: A 10 Year Retrospective from Marquette, Michigan
2024-02-07 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Claire Pettersen, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
Title: Observing, Characterizing, and Quantifying Wintertime Precipitation Processes: A 10 Year Retrospective from Marquette, Michigan

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About the presentation: Winter precipitation (rain and snowfall) has widespread impacts on communities through regional ecology, hydrological planning, and socioeconomic effects. In this presentation, I will feature important findings from winter weather regime-based studies leveraging precipitation observations from a long-term, ground-based instrument suite in the Northern Great Lakes region. Realistic estimates of rain and snowfall in weather forecasting and climate models are challenging due to uncertainties in cloud and precipitation parameterization schemes. Additionally, remote-sensing observations require assumptions about hydrometeor microphysical and radiative properties. High temporal resolution, multi-instrument observations of clouds and precipitation can help better constrain processes in models and refine retrieval assumptions, leading to more accurate quantification of accumulation. I will highlight the advantage of utilizing long-term observations to examine key physical and dynamical precipitation processes through the lens of regime partitioning. Precipitation regimes are determined using observations of macrophysical and microphysical properties, large-scale environmental conditions, and thermodynamic profile characteristics. Key findings demonstrate that regime-dependent characteristics of precipitation lead to distinct differences in frequency, intensity, and phase, microphysical properties, and overall accumulation. Additionally, I will demonstrate how winter precipitation regimes in the Northern Great Lakes region are tied to significant seasonal and subseasonal, synoptic, and thermodynamic conditions such as atmospheric blocking and anomalous moisture transport (atmospheric rivers).
About the speaker: Claire Pettersen is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2022, Dr. Pettersen worked as an engineer and research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for more than 15 years. Dr. Pettersen’s research is focused on cold-season and cold-location precipitation (snow, mixed-phase, rain), as well as associated cloud, thermodynamic, and synoptic characteristics. Much of her research is focused on the mid- and high-latitude regions of the world where the climate is rapidly changing. Dr. Pettersen’s research lies at the intersection of science and instrumentation and utilizes ground-based, airborne, and satellite observations of clouds and precipitation. Additionally, Dr. Pettersen has been involved with either ground-based and airborne field campaigns each year since 2004, including installing and deploying instrumentation on both the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets. Dr. Pettersen’s research is supported by program offices and science teams within NASA, NOAA, and NSF. She was a recipient of the 2019 NASA Early Career Award (New Investigator Program) to investigate snow properties using ground-based instruments such as vertically profiling radars and video imagers. Additionally, Dr. Pettersen is currently a Mercator Fellow for the Arctic Amplification: German Climate Relevant Atmospheric and Surface Processes and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3 project.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

04/24/24: Thirty-five years of progress on the Great Lakes: from no policy to global ballast water standards
2024-04-24 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Hugh MacIsaac, Professor, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, School of the Environment, University of Windsor
Title: Thirty-five years of progress on the Great Lakes: from no policy to global ballast water standards

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About the presentation: Expert opinion has placed invasive species as a top stressor of the Great Lakes. Up until the late 1980s, ballast water – the principal pathway (65% of invasions) for species introduction to the system – was unregulated. Invasions by zebra mussels and Eurasian ruffe focused attention of researchers and policy makers on the ballast water threat, resulting in a 1993 USCG policy mandating ballast water exchange (BWE) for vessels entering the system with filled ballast tanks. A retrospective analysis of reported invasions 13 years before and after implementation of the policy shows that new ballast-mediated invasions was virtually unchanged (16 vs 15 species, respectively). Further policy change in 2006 (Canada) and USA (2008) required even vessels with residual ballast water to ‘flush’ open-ocean water through tanks before entry, and coincided with a dramatic decline in new invasions (2 species) over the following 13-year period. This decline is best explained by policy change and not by alternative explanations (shipping volume, source pool depletion, search effort). The International Maritime Organization is presently implementing a new global policy (IMO D-2) based on abundance-based performance standards for different size classes of introduced organisms. The theory behind this policy is based on the well-established principle of ‘propagule pressure’, which defines risk based on the concentration of viable organisms discharged of a single species. However, IMO D-2 is based on ‘community propagule pressure’, a nebulous and unstudied concept, and it ignores the conflating influence of colonization pressure (ie. the number of species introduced). Here I will show that at the concentration of organisms relevant to IMO D-2, colonization pressure has a much greater influence on probability of invasion than ‘community propagule pressure’. I will also examine compliance with the new IMO D-2 standard for zooplankton, and suggest safeguards for the Great Lakes to ensure that vessels do not exceed permissible abundance discharge limits.
About the speaker: Hugh MacIsaac is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Invasive Species at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor (Windsor ON). He also teaches and conducts research at Yunnan University in Kunming, China. Hugh served as director of the CAISN research networks addressing aquatic invasive species in Canada. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed papers and was honored with the Rigler Award from the Society of Canadian Limnologists. Hugh earned his Ph.D. degree (long ago) from Dartmouth College studying zooplankton ecology. He is interested in a variety of issues pertaining to invasive species including analyses of pathways of introduction, risk assessment, genetic characterization and evolution of invasive species, and management. In his spare time, he and his wife Jaimie enjoy cycling.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

05/14/24: Some Applications of Machine Learning in the Physical Sciences
2024-05-14 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Paul Roebber, Distinguished Professor, School for Freshwater Sciences: Atmospheric Science, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Title: Some Applications of Machine Learning in the Physical Sciences

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About the presentation: Interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence is widespread and growing, both in society in general and in the physical sciences. As an example, I am presently engaged in four projects with NOAA in these areas: adaptive numerical weather prediction post- processing (evolutionary programming using neural networks as the “agents”); adaptive post-processing of a deep learning “BLEND” model in support of fire weather forecasting; heavy rainfall nowcasting in the southeastern US (CNN and standard neural networks); verification studies of data-driven ensemble weather prediction models (GraphCast). Some other projects include snow-to-liquid water ratios, coupled Great Lakes lake level modeling, convective forecasting in the US and Taiwan, and reverse engineering of initial conditions in support of ensemble model generation. In this talk, in addition to this overview from my work, I will discuss proposed future directions in machine learning in NOAA, based on a recent survey conducted with support by NOAA’s Office of Science and Technology Integration.
About the speaker: Dr. Paul Roebber is a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s (UWM) School of Freshwater Sciences. Dr. Roebber is an Affiliate Faculty with the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute in Milwaukee, where he also serves as the Program Director for the Bachelor of Science in Data Analytics and the Master of Science in Data Science. Since 2016, Roebber has been contributing to the National Weather Service’s Meteorological Development Laboratory data science efforts, which seek to improve weather forecast model information across all of North America, and he holds active grants with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation. During a 2021-22 sabbatical leave, working with NOAA’s Office of Science and Technology Integration, Roebber researched and wrote a report summarizing current machine learning efforts within the National Weather Service, with a view towards removing current obstacles to progress in this area.
Dr. Roebber holds advanced degrees in meteorology and physical oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and McGill University. He has edited and published extensively in the scientific research literature, with 80 papers and book chapters in print, and is a co-author of a book published by MIT Press on Expert Forecasting (“Minding the Weather”). In support of this work, Roebber has won 43 grants from Federal and State agencies, as well as the private sector and the Government of Canada. He has directed 33 thesis students at the doctoral and masters level at UWM since 1994.
Dr. Roebber has extensive experience in public and private weather forecasting, synoptic and mesoscale modeling, forecast verification and data science. Paul is the recipient of multiple awards including the American Meteorological Society’s Editors Award, the MIT Club of Wisconsin Individual Tech Award, the UWM Research Foundation Senior Faculty Award, and the UWM Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

06/18/24: Applying New Technology at a Great (Lake) Scale: What are We Waiting for?
2024-06-18 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00-12:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Ed Verhamme, Principal and Senior Engineer at LimnoTech and President of Freeboard Technology
Title: Applying New Technology at a Great (Lake) Scale: What are We Waiting for?

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About the presentation: Despite the ubiquity of modern electronics in our pockets, cars, and buildings, there’s still relatively few sensors deployed in the natural environment, including the watersheds, nearshore areas and open waters of the Great Lakes. Why is that? This seminar will examine a few case studies where the number of sensors has scaled quickly and where progress has stalled. Technological advancements have helped to increase sensor reliability and lower costs (both capital and operation), but catastrophic events are still the main catalyzing force driving rapid change in the region. Examples include the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, large hurricanes, and more recently the Toledo Water Crisis. These events have been the nucleation point that has driven the deployment and ongoing operation of over 100 operational sensors on the Great Lakes. However, these investments pale in comparison to the rapid adoption of sensors in other public sectors including transportation (traffic), energy (smart grid), and even terrestrial weather. Government funding after each disaster helped rapidly advance new sensor networks, however, ongoing expansion and operation of similar sensors has fallen on a mix of federal, state, and local sources of funding. However, there are some exceptions including the use of technology within fisheries management, which is accelerating adoption of several low and high-tech sensor networks. A myriad of agencies and commercial companies all play a role in coordinating, funding, and maintaining sensors networks in these public spaces. Identification of mismatches between investments (either in the public or private sector) in monitoring and public health or shear economic value are easy targets for expansion. While deploying and maintaining sensors offshore is challenging, there’s many opportunities to grow watershed, shoreline, and mobile asset monitoring. Careful attention needs to be paid to the means of funding (public) or monetization (private), and how to incentivize, rather than mandate, the expansion of sensor networks that reduce risk (health or financial) and improve our understanding of the largest freshwater ecosystem on the planet.
About the speaker: Ed Verhamme is a Principal and Senior Engineer at LimnoTech and was recently named president of Freeboard Technology, a new water technology start-up he co-founded as a subsidiary of LimnoTech. Ed is well known for his work across the Great Lakes region and other key lakes in the United States to design, build, and maintain the next generation sensing network that supports hundreds of thousands of boaters, key water managers, and critical infrastructure owners. He holds a M.S. and B.S in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University, where he first applied models and advanced sensors to study the depths of Lake Superior and has since studied portions of every Great Lakes. Drinking water treatment plants, coastal communities, and the research community rely on Ed’s expertise to monitor and model hazardous weather, toxic and harmful algal blooms, hypoxic waters, and critical shoreline and wetland habitats. He has also served as a principal investigator on several major federally funded research projects and has contributed to nearly twenty peer-reviewed journal articles and mentored a dozen master’s and PhD students. In 2021, Ed served as president of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and in 2023 received its highest service award, the Anderson-Everett Award. Ed works at LimnoTech’s office in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

07/18/24: Geodetic Observations of Water Mass Changes in the Great Lakes Basin
2024-07-18 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Jeffrey Freymueller, Professor, Endowed Chair for Geology of the Solid Earth, Michigan State University
Title: Geodetic Observations of Water Mass Changes in the Great Lakes Basin

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About the presentation: Changes in total water mass now can be measured by ground-based and space-based observations. As water moved around the planet, the entire Earth deforms as a result of the changing force exerted by the weight of the water, and we can measure these motions using precise GPS observations. The gravity changes due to the changing distribution of water can also be measured using data from the GRACE satellite mission. Because these observations provide estimates of the total water mass changes, we can combine them with measurements of surface water changes to infer changes in groundwater, which are otherwise hard to measure. Previous work showed that the 2012-2019 rise of Great Lakes water levels produced up to about 2 cm of ground subsidence, which we can observe in GPS data. To make accurate estimates of the water mass variations, we will need to fully understand noise and any biases, and carefully remove all signals that are not due to the water (for example, atmospheric pressure loading and glacial isostatic adjustment). We are about 1 year into a 5 year project to make these measurements and fuse them with groundwater modeling and other remote sensing data to develop a groundwater model for the Great Lakes Basin.
About the speaker: Freymueller is an internationally recognized leader in the field of geodesy, and utilizes satellites from the Global Positioning System (GPS) to make highly precise measurements of movement on Earth’s surface. In his far-reaching research activities, he has made discoveries in a wide range of topics including plate tectonics and plate boundary zones, faults dynamics, the continuing rebound of the Earth’s surface from the melting of ice-age glaciers, inflation and deflation of volcanoes, and interpreting how changing water and ice levels deform the Earth. He is particularly well-cited for his work on using GPS to understand the crustal deformation in China, related to the formation of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.
In addition to his research, Freymueller is the Director of the EarthScope National Office. EarthScope is a long-term, large-scale, NSF-funded program to study the structure and evolution of North America and associated hazards through the deployment of thousands of geophysical instruments throughout the country.
Freymueller also has served the scientific community as the US National Correspondent to the International Association of Geodesy and its representative to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, has served terms as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research and Journal of Geodesy, and is currently Editor in Chief of the International Association of Geodesy Symposia Series.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

09/27/24: Climate, Chemistry and the Great Lakes: What Goes Up Must Come Down
2024-09-27 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Allison Steiner , Professor, Department of Climate and Space Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
Title: Climate, Chemistry and the Great Lakes: What Goes Up Must Come Down

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About the presentation: The Laurentian Great Lakes can influence regional climate and chemistry through a variety of mechanisms, and I’ll discuss these chemistry-climate interactions from the perspective of what goes up (e.g., water via evaporation, aerosols via lake spray) versus what comes down (e.g., aerosol deposition of nutrients, precipitation). From the climate perspective, we analyze the atmospheric moisture budget in the Great Lakes region using reanalyses and future climate model data to develop a process-level understanding of the precipitation seasonality. We identify the lakes not only as a source of moisture, but also in generating localized moisture flux convergence/divergence patterns that affect the seasonality of the water cycle. Despite differences in historical simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) data archive, common patterns of change are present in the future projections of the atmospheric water budget. Specifically, summer drying and winter/spring wetting by mid-century is consistent across models, indicating a shift in the precipitation seasonal cycle towards colder months, while evapotranspiration magnitudes revealed unambiguous increases throughout the year in all models. Overall, the atmospheric transport of moisture is the primary driver of future precipitation changes, with an amplification of the moisture flux convergence seasonal cycle in future climate model simulations. From the atmospheric chemistry perspective, I’ll discuss the role of the lakes as a source or sink for chemical constituents in the atmosphere. Emissions of lake spray aerosol (LSA) can be a regional source of aerosol, and including LSA in regional chemistry models increases aerosol pH in the Great Lakes region and enables the partitioning of nitrate to the aerosol phase. Overall, this suggests that LSA should be included in regional assessments of atmospheric chemistry and air quality. The deposition of atmospheric aerosols is a source of phosphorus to the Great Lakes region, and while this contribution is small compared to surface runoff, it has not been well-constrained. We quantify the phosphorus deposition to the Great Lakes using a combination of ground-based measurements and models across the region, and highlight uncertainties in this atmospheric source of phosphorus.
About the speaker: Allison L. Steiner is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research uses and develops models to explore the interactions of the biosphere and atmosphere, with the goal of understanding the natural versus human influence on climate and atmospheric chemistry. She is the recipient of the Walter Orr Roberts Lecture from the American Meteorological Society (2022), the Ascent Award from the Atmospheric Sciences section of the American Geophysical Union (2015), and the University of Michigan Henry Russel Award (2013). Within the atmospheric sciences community, she has served as an editor at Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (2014-2018), a member of the National Academy of Science committee on The Future of Atmospheric Chemistry Research report (2016), and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (2016-2022). She is currently the President of the Atmospheric Sciences section of the American Geophysical Union.

**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

10/23/24: The Science and Art of Collaborative Flood Forecasting: Rivers, Lakes and their Expert-Inhabitants
2024-10-23 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Stephanie Kane, Professor Emerit, Department of International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington
Title: The Science and Art of Collaborative Flood Forecasting: Rivers, Lakes and their Expert-Inhabitants

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: How do we pull together those with skills and talents steeped in disciplinary knowledge and inhabitant experience to interpret and respond appropriately to the radical uncertainties of rivers and lakes enacting climate change extremes? Based on her ethnography of flood control in urbanized Manitoban floodplains, Stephanie Kane identifies and recasts key aspects of traditional expert-inhabitant forecasting. She proposes touchstones for a place-based/planet-informed path forward that affectively and effectively grounds engineering, science and law in environmental and social justice.
About the speaker: Stephanie C. Kane is a cultural anthropologist and Emerit Professor of International Studies in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. Her earlier book on water and cities is entitled Where Rivers Meet the Sea: The Political Ecology of Water (2012, Temple). Her most recent book, Just One Rain Away: The Ethnography of River-city Flood Control (2022 McGill Queen’s) brings together diverse experimental fieldwork-based methods. Using geoscience and flood forecasting, Kane interprets the perspective of water and ice as earth-shaping riverine actors who encounter collective humans in the form of cities. By drawing on official post-disaster reports, novels, a play, personal experience narratives and an emergency press conference, Just One Rain Away writes humanity’s existential climate-changing moment into the peculiar place-based intersection of historical and geological time.
**Registration is not required**
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IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

11/12/2024: Ecological and Evolutionary Responses of Phytoplankton to Global Environmental Change
2024-11-12 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00-12:00 pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Elena Litchman, Ph.D., Michigan State University Foundation Professor of Aquatic Ecology, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Michigan State University
Title: Ecological and Evolutionary Responses of Phytoplankton to Global Environmental Change

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About the presentation: Phytoplankton are key primary producers performing half of Earth’s carbon fixation, forming the base of aquatic food webs, driving major biogeochemical cycles and affecting water quality. Understanding how phytoplankton respond to changing environmental conditions, including global climate change, is critical for our ability to predict the fate and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. I will present examples of how we can use trait-based approaches to improve our mechanistic understanding of phytoplankton community reorganization under different conditions, including the occurrence and proliferation of harmful algal blooms.
About the speaker: Elena Litchman is an MSU Research Foundation Professor at Michigan State University. She studies the responses of aquatic ecosystems to changing environments, including anthropogenic global change, and the consequences of those changes for biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functioning. She focuses on microbial communities and conducts research in a wide range of systems, from lakes in the US and Siberia to the global ocean and experimental phytoplankton communities. She combines experiments, field studies and mathematical models to address ecological questions of fundamental and applied significance.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

02/18/25: The Maritime to Inland Transitions Towards ENvironments for Convection Initiation (MITTEN-CI) Field Campaign
2025-02-18 11:30 - 12:30
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Time: 11:30am-12:30pm EST
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Jason M. Keeler, Ph.D. (he, him, his), Associate Professor of Meteorology, Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Institute for Great Lakes Research, Central Michigan University
Title: The Maritime to Inland Transitions Towards ENvironments for Convection Initiation (MITTEN-CI) Field Campaign

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation:The evolution of the marine atmospheric boundary layer as it advects inland during the warm season plays a critical role in the initiation–or suppression–of convection in the Great Lakes coastal
environment. Gaining a deeper understanding of these transitions and their effects on convection is of significant importance, particularly given the large population in many coastal areas. To address this, the
National Science Foundation-funded Maritime to Inland Transitions Towards ENvironments for Convection Initiation (MITTEN-CI) campaign was conducted in July 2024, with the goal of developing an extensive dataset that could effectively characterize these transitions. Over-lake thermodynamic and kinematic profiles were observed by Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS), while sampling of boundary layer spatial and temporal variability over land was observed by a 120 km long shore-perpendicular transect including six flux towers, two mobile mesonets, multiple radiosonde launch sites, a Doppler LiDAR, and two mobile Ka-band Doppler radars. This dataset enables hypothesis testing that will result in new knowledge of processes that support the development of instability maxima on the cool side of lake-breeze fronts (LBFs), the potential for diffuse LBFs to exist embedded within synoptic-scale onshore flow and influence CI, the prevalence of misovortices at intersections of horizontal convective rolls and the LBF, RKW theory’s relation to the vertical structure of the LBF, and the influence of entrainment on the thermodynamics and structure of the boundary layer and the LBF. This talk will provide an overview of the MITTEN-CI campaign, highlighting the unique data collected, with additional insights provided through analysis of relevant idealized simulations.
About the speaker: Jason Keeler is an Associate Professor of Meteorology and has been a faculty member of Central Michigan University’s Institute for Great Lakes Research since 2018. He joined the faculty at CMU following postdoctoral studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research blends aspects of boundary layer and mesoscale dynamics, with a focus on destabilization and evolution of convection, often applied to coastal areas. Jason and his collaborators explored these processes in summer 2024 through the NSF-funded MITTEN-CI field campaign (Maritime to Inland Transitions Towards ENvironments for Convection Initiation). In his spare time, Jason is an avid gardener, and enjoys traveling with his husband.

**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

03/04/25: Representing Lake-Atmosphere Interactions in NOAA’s Weather Prediction Models
2025-03-04 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00-12:00 pm EST
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Christiane Jablonowski, Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
Title: Representing Lake-Atmosphere Interactions in NOAA’s Weather Prediction Models

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: The talk provides an overview of various lake-atmosphere coupling approaches that are either currently employed or envisioned for NOAA’s suite of weather prediction models across a range of temporal and spatial scales. Special attention is paid to the representation of the Laurentian Great Lakes in the high-resolution, convection-allowing NOAA forecast models HRRR as well as the newly-developed Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS). The latter is based on a configuration of NOAA’s Unified Forecast System (UFS). The lake surface conditions for temperature and ice are either represented via NOAA’s operational 3D FVCOM lake modeling framework with the embedded lake ice component CICE or represented via a simpler 1D modeling approach based on the CLM lake parameterization. The talk will compare these two lake modeling approaches, will survey the pros and cons of online and offline lake-atmosphere coupling ideas, and will shed light on the temporal coupling frequency. The ideas will be illustrated via selected case studies that focus on lake-effect snow events during the winter months. These lake-effect snow events downwind of the Great Lakes are especially sensitive to lake-atmosphere interactions and thereby serve as suitable exemplars.
About the speaker: Christiane Jablonowski is a Professor in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. She also worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Dr. Jablonowski’s research lies at the interface between weather and climate modeling, scientific computing, and data science.
In particular, her research portfolio includes atmospheric fluid dynamics, weather and climate modeling, coupling techniques, climate model hierarchies, scientific computing, and machine learning techniques for the climate sciences. She works with the weather and climate models from NCAR, NOAA, and the Department of Energy (DoE). Dr. Jablonowski is the recipient of a DoE Early Career Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She is a co-lead of NOAA’s Convection-Allowing Model for short-range weather forecasts with the Unified Forecast System (UFS), serves on the Steering Committee for NCAR’s Community Earth System Model (CESM), and is a member of the AMS Committee on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science.

**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

03/20/25: The promises and perils of research in solving sustainability problems
2025-03-20 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: David M. Lodge, Francis J. DiSalvo Director of Cornell University’s Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Title: The promises and perils of research in solving sustainability problems

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: Researchers often assume that the value of research in solving problems is self-evident. Yet most research does not lead to solutions, even when the proposals that launched the research promised solutions. University and government researchers could address this longtime peril by including clear theories of change in project development, and co-creating and co-executing projects across disciplines and sectors. This would require alignment of funding and infrastructure to support such mission-driven research. In a rapidly changing government landscape, I will examine past examples of the role of research and technology development in driving change in policies, practices, and products. While I do not promise to resolve all the promises and perils, I will suggest some possible ways forward for solutions-oriented sustainability research in government and universities.
About the speaker: Dr. David M. Lodge is the Francis J. DiSalvo director of Cornell University’s Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. He is an internationally recognized environmental scientist, with expertise in environmental risk assessment, freshwater and marine coastal ecology, ecosystem services, bioeconomics, and invasive species. His research has improved ecological forecasting to better inform environmental risk assessment, natural resource management, and policy development. Lodge is a leader in the development and application of environmental DNA (eDNA), a transformative technological tool for discovering unrecognized biodiversity, censusing aquatic biodiversity, and improving the management of imperiled, invasive, or harvested species. He is past president of the Ecological Society of America, and former senior science advisor in the US Department of State’s Office of Polar Affairs. On numerous occasions he has testified before the U.S. Congress, and served as an expert witness in federal court. He is faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell
University.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

04/22/25: Adapting to extreme weather patterns in Michigan and beyond
2025-04-22 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Lauren Mullenbach, Assistant Research Scientist, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
Title: Adapting to extreme weather patterns in Michigan and beyond

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About the presentation: Using interdisciplinary social science methods, Dr. Mullenbach conducts research exploring the ways cities are adapting to extreme weather patterns and how those actions impact specific populations. In this talk, Dr. Mullenbach will provide a brief overview of her research agenda, describe ongoing projects in Michigan, and discuss goals for future research. Her current research in Michigan takes place in Benton Harbor and Detroit, looking at flooding impacts and stormwater infrastructure for vulnerable residents.

About the speaker: Dr. Lauren Mullenbach is the Research Coordinator for Michigan Sea Grant and also holds an appointment as an Assistant Research Scientist in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor in Geography & Environmental Sustainability and affiliate faculty in Regional + City Planning at the University of Oklahoma. Her research agenda explores urban environmental justice issues, focused primarily on green spaces and climate change adaptation.

**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

05/08/25: Spawning and sustenance: exploring two key aspects of Great Lakes fish ecology
2025-05-08 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Corey Krabbenhoft, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Buffalo
Title: Spawning and sustenance: exploring two key aspects of Great Lakes fish ecology

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: Effective conservation of fishes in the Great Lakes basin should consider all aspects of fish life history. In my lab at the University at Buffalo, we are investigating patterns in multiple species with a focus on reproductive and feeding ecology. Our first story will focus on the native lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Lake trout were extirpated from Lake Erie in the 1960s and have been solely supported by stocking in the years since. Recent evidence has shown wild reproduction of lake trout is taking place, potentially for the first time in decades, and our work aims to determine the constraints on lake trout recovery to the point of a self-sustaining population. Using the GLATOS telemetry system and site-specific evaluations of lake trout spawning habitat, we have identified spawning locations and environmental drivers that may help support increased recruitment for this important top predator. Our second story will focus on food web structure of Great Lake tributaries with specific emphasis on the role of the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), which has been altering Great Lakes fisheries for over three decades. We are currently exploring the impact of this established invader on native community food web structure using stable isotope analyses, and aim to expand on this work to address fundamental questions about the process of invasion in lotic ecosystems with round goby secondary spread as a test case. Overall, this talk will provide an up-to-date overview of some key players in local aquatic ecosystems, and set the stage for a way forward for multiple conservation and management concerns basin-wide.
About the speaker: Corey Krabbenhoft is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo in western New York. She received her BS and MS from the University of New Mexico and her PhD From Wayne State University. Her primary research interests center around the response of freshwater communities to environmental stressors including invasive species, climate change, water quality, and water availability. She has worked in the North American Great Lakes for 10 years and has active research on lake trout recruitment, round goby invasion, and native mussel conservation.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

09/24/25: Critical hope: Centering emotions as a missing component of climate change resilience research
2025-09-24 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Becky Williams, Assistant Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Grand Valley State University
Title: Critical hope: Centering emotions as a missing component of climate change resilience research

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: In the United States federal funding for climate action has been reduced and climate education and research is being restricted. Against this backdrop conducting research on climate and the environment has become an academic challenge. Until recently, I approached my work on climate change from the perspective of mitigation and adaptation. However, the gravity of the situation and sense of desperation from colleagues and students demanded a shift in focus. It became clear that we need to focus on making the “climate landing” as soft as possible for as many people as possible. In this presentation I will discuss the concept of Critical Hope as a key and missing piece in climate education and in climate resilience research focused on human communities. I will present an example of the integration of Critical Hope in the classroom where students build essential coping skills, process complex emotions, and engage in meaningful action. I will then briefly examine the concept of Critical Hope within the context of climate resilience frameworks.
About the speaker: Dr. Becky Williams is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. She teaches in the Environmental Studies; Global Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Integrative Studies programs. Her most recent research focuses on “critical hope” as a key missing link in climate change resilience. In addition, she focuses on the impacts of climate change on rural and indigenous livelihoods in Central America, and how it impacts livelihood pathways. She also conducts research on gender and development projects (e.g., women’s empowerment initiatives, gender-based violence mitigation) through the lens of contemporary critical feminist critiques of development including intersectionality, masculinities, and decoloniality. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology, concentrating in Tropical Conservation and Development from the University of Florida and a graduate certificate in Gender and Development. She holds a MS in Instructional Systems Design from Florida State University and a BS in Music Education from Stetson University.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

12/04/25: Modeling the Fate and Transport of Plastic Pollution Using Great Lakes Hydrodynamic Models and Exploring the Potential Impact of Data Assimilation
2025-12-04 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual
Presenter: Matthew Hoffman, Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Rochester Institute of Technology
Title: Modeling the Fate and Transport of Plastic Pollution Using Great Lakes Hydrodynamic Models and Exploring the Potential Impact of Data Assimilation

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About the presentation: Understanding the transport and fate of plastic pollution is crucial for modeling the exposure risk for different ecosystems and organisms. I will discuss efforts to model the transport of plastic pollution in the Great Lakes using NOAA’s operational hydrodynamics models and custom built transport code to simulate changing particle properties. The models allow for advection, turbulent mixing in the vertical, density driven sinking, beaching, deposition, and biofouling of particles. The transport model relies on accurant hydrodynamic fields, so I will also describe initial efforts to perform data assimilation on the NOAA model output using a Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) approach on the FVCOM model of Lake Erie. We test the LETKF using simulated observations of surface temperature and vertical profiles of temperature.

About the speaker: Matthew J. Hoffman is a Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Hoffman received the B.A. degree in Mathematics and Astrophysics from Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Earth and Planetary Science Department at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA , where he worked on data assimilation for the Chesapeake Bay. Since moving to RIT, he has shifted his focus to the Great Lakes, including some work on data assimilation on the NOAA forecast model for Lake Erie. Over the past decade, his work has focused on modeling the input, transport, and fate of plastic pollution in fresh water, including the Great Lakes.
**Registration is not required**
_____________________________________________________
IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

02/18/26: Using eDNA and population genomics to monitor the invasion of hemlock woolly adelgid throughout eastern North America.
2026-02-18 13:00 - 14:00
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Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Location: Virtual and NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall*
Presenter: Charlyn Partridge, Associate Professor at Annis Water Resources Institute – Grand Valley State University
Title: Using eDNA and population genomics to monitor the invasion of hemlock woolly adelgid throughout eastern North America.

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: Hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae, HWA) is a small invasive insect threatening hemlock forests throughout the eastern United States and Canada. Eastern hemlocks are a foundation tree species found in sensitive coastal dunes and riparian zones. Once infested, HWA feeds on the nutrients of hemlocks, often resulting in hemlock mortality within 4 – 10 years. This can lead to landscape-level changes in biodiversity as infestations progress. Management efforts in Michigan are underway to control this invasive pest with a key focus on early detection. Current monitoring methods involve visual assessment of hemlocks for the presence of HWA ovisacs. However, this is a demanding task considering there are an estimated 170 million hemlock trees in Michigan. Our lab is using a combination of airborne environmental DNA (eDNA) methods and population genomics analysis to help detect new infestations and gain insight into the historical spread of HWA throughout eastern North America. The information we gain from our work, will hopefully contribute to faster detections and more accurate range expansion models as HWA continues to spread throughout the Great Lakes region.
About the speaker: Dr. Charlyn Partridge is an Associate Professor at Annis Water Resources Institute – Grand Valley State University. Her research uses genetic and genomic tools to aid in conservation and management efforts. Her current projects involve using environmental DNA approaches for targeted species detection and understanding how invasive species rapidly adapt to new environments.

Registration is not required
_____________________________________________________
*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

03/12/26: Strengthening science on the African Great Lakes through a highly collaborative network of freshwater experts
2026-03-12 12:00 - 13:00
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Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm EDT
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual*
Presenter: Ted Lawrence, Executive Director, African Center for Aquatic Research and Education
Title: Strengthening science on the African Great Lakes through a highly collaborative network of freshwater experts

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About the presentation: Over 25% of the world’s surface fresh water is found in the seven African Great Lakes. These basins are of vital importance to hundreds of millions of people, providing drinking water, protein, jobs, and transportation, and further supporting the Gross Domestic Product of each of the ten riparian countries. The lakes are the most species-rich freshwater systems on the planet, harboring over a thousand fish species, and hundreds of other aquatic and terrestrial species. The importance of these lakes is undermined, however, by myriad anthropogenic stressors, including climate change, overuse, gas and oil exploration, habitat loss and degradation, agricultural runoff, industrial and urban pollution, invasive species, and a host of other issues. The lack of attention to the health of these lakes is a modern-day tragedy, with a dearth of research barely enough to provide information to make good policy and management decisions. The AGL are all multijurisdictional in nature, suffering from tragedy-of-the-commons-type issues. Recognizing that no one organization or institution can address the challenges that our global freshwater resources face, recent efforts by African, North American, and European experts are proactively seeking to build partnerships that leverage the combined skills, assets, technologies and resources of public, private and nonprofit entities to deliver sustainable instruction and research. The major goal is to positively influence policy and management of freshwater resources in East Africa through sound science. The process is a long-term collaborative process by which the scientific, academic, policy and management, and other interested community interact through a structured process to prioritize research and thus, harness the resources and knowledge to conduct research that results in useful, harmonized data, and ideas to influence positive change. The full process, described in this talk, is to ensure that the ecological structure of the African Great Lakes, and those who depend on them are preserved and enhanced.
About the speaker: Dr. Ted Lawrence is the Executive Director of the African Center for Aquatic Research and Education (ACARE)—leading work to ensure scientists from North America and African collaborate and share knowledge to protect freshwater Great Lakes around the world.
He has been living, working, and researching in Africa for over 20 years. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, researching governance and management of large, multi-jurisdictional freshwater resources, specifically on Lake Victoria, East Africa and conducted comparative analysis of management approaches between African and North American lake systems.
Based on his background and research, Ted and his colleagues formed ACARE, a highly collaborative organization whose goals are to positively affect policy and management on Africa’s Great Lakes by executing a long-term network of freshwater experts to strengthen science in Africa. He also spent 15 years as the Communications and Policy Specialist at the bi-national Canadian-U.S. Great Lakes Fishery Commission where many of the building blocks for successful collaboration are used to inform the processes on the African Great Lakes.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

04/07/2026: Harnessing genomics to characterize diversity in Great Lakes ciscoes across space and time
2026-04-07 11:00 - 12:00
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Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EST
Location: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall and Virtual*
Presenter: Amanda Ackiss, Fisheries Biologist, Great Lakes Science Center – USGS
Title: Harnessing genomics to characterize diversity in Great Lakes ciscoes across space and time

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About the presentation:
At the end of the Pleistocene, many salmonid fishes in the subfamily Coregoninae rapidly diversified in newly available freshwater habitats across the northern hemisphere. In terms of evolutionary time, these species flocks are incredibly young, and many instances of diversification appear to have occurred in sympatry rather than allopatry, leading to incomplete lineage sorting. The difficulty disentangling species relationships in this subfamily has been termed the ‘coregonine problem’ and has severely limited the ability of scientists and managers to draw robust conclusions regarding best practices for their conservation and restoration. This is particularly vital in the Laurentian Great Lakes, where overfishing, habitat degradation, and the introduction of invasive species in the 20th century led to precipitous declines in the largest documented radiation of coregonines in North America, the Coregonus artedi species complex. Many of these impacts have been mitigated in recent decades, and interest in restoring lost populations of these important prey fishes is growing, calling for a better understanding of relationships between members of this species complex. In this talk, I will discuss how we are leveraging new genomic tools to elucidate historic and contemporary differentiation and to explore the mechanisms of divergence in the Great Lakes C. artedi species complex in support of on-going conservation and restoration efforts.
About the speaker:
Amanda Ackiss is a Fish Biologist at the US Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, MI. She earned her B.A. in Media Studies at the University of Virginia before pivoting back to the field of science and earning her Ph.D. in Ecological Sciences at Old Dominion University. During her Ph.D. she gained expertise in molecular ecology, genomics, and bioinformatics studying the diversity of fishes in the Coral Triangle region of southeast Asia before accepting a postdoctoral research position at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point that introduced her to the cisco species complex of the Great Lakes. Amanda’s lab at the USGS Great Lakes Science Center now focuses on applied genomics at the interface of speciation and spatial ecology to support bi-national coregonine conservation and restoration efforts.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

4/16/2026: Exploring the role of nitrogen substrate availability in the ecology of Microcystis-dominated CyanoHABs
2026-04-16 12:00 - 13:00
Please join us for a Great Lakes Seminar Series – subscribe!
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm ET
Location: Virtual or NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall*
Presenter: Jenan Kharbush, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Title: Exploring the role of nitrogen substrate availability in the ecology of Microcystis-dominated CyanoHABs

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: “Nitrogen availability” refers to the amounts of biologically usable nitrogen forms relative to demand by the biological community. In cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) dominated by the non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa, nitrogen availability is critical for the production of the nitrogen-rich toxin microcystin, and may also play a role in shaping M. aeruginosa strain composition and relative abundance of toxic and non-toxic strains. During the annual CyanoHAB in Western Lake Erie, both the dominant form of nitrogen (organic vs. inorganic) and M. aeruginosa strain composition shift as the bloom progresses, as does the heterotrophic bacterial community composition in M. aeruginosa colonies. Recent metagenomics and culture-based work suggests that some of these heterotrophs may be involved in nitrogen acquisition and cycling processes with Microcystis. In this talk I will discuss some of our recent efforts to understand the influence of nitrogen form on Microcystis bloom ecology, via both strain-specific adaptations and interactions with other community members such as heterotrophic bacteria. This includes examining how nitrogen form influences exometabolite production in cultured M. aeruginosa strains, as well as using nano-secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) to measure how cell-specific nitrogen uptake in field communities changes with bloom phase.
About the speaker: Jenan is an Assistant Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in Chemical Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she developed an appreciation for the complexity of microbial life and the outsized influence microbes have on their environment. At U-M, her research group studies how aquatic microorganisms, particularly phytoplankton, acquire and use nitrogen, including during CyanoHABs. They combine laboratory culture experiments with field-based environmental observations to link cellular-level nitrogen cycling processes to large-scale geochemical patterns in both modern and ancient environments.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

05/06/2026: Leveraging behavioral insights to improve outreach and protect water quality
2026-05-06 11:00 - 12:00
Please join us for a Great Lakes Seminar Series – subscribe!
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: Virtual
Presenter: Adam Reimer, Outreach & Evaluation Scientist, National Wildlife Federation
Title: Leveraging behavioral insights to improve outreach and protect water quality

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Webinar Recording
About the presentation: Achieving conservation aims in the Great Lakes region, including protecting water quality, enhancing wildlife habitat, and building community resilience, often relies on voluntary actions by farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners. Numerous agencies, organizations, and policies support farmer adoption of soil health practices, improved nutrient management, and managed tile drainage. Despite decades of effort, adoption of key practices has lagged what is needed to reach larger conservation goals. National Wildlife Federation has worked with producers and conservation professionals for over a decade to improve outreach and conservation communications to reach new audiences and expand adoption of key practices. NWF programs apply insights from social and behavioral science to increase organizational capacity and identify novel strategies for increasing conservation adoption. This presentation will share key insights from NWF programs and outline research and extension needs to scale up adoption in the Great Lakes region.
About the speaker: Adam Reimer is the outreach and evaluation scientist at the National Wildlife Federation. He has training in interdisciplinary social and agricultural science with a PhD from Purdue University. Adam has an extensive research background exploring farmer and landowner conservation decision making and the role of policy and social networks in conservation outcomes. At NWF, he helps support local and farmer-led conservation outreach throughout the Midwest by leveraging social and behavioral sciences to develop effective engagement strategies.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

09/16/2026: Growing Aquaculture in the Great Lakes: Aligning Regional Action with National Trends
2026-09-16 11:00 - 12:00
Please join us for a Great Lakes Seminar Series – subscribe!
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: Virtual or NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall*
Presenter: Dr. Lauren N Stigers, Extension Educator, MSU Extension and Michigan Sea Grant
Title: Growing Aquaculture in the Great Lakes: Aligning Regional Action with National Trends

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Webinar Registration Link
About the presentation: Aquaculture now supplies most of the world’s seafood (57%), yet the U.S. remains heavily reliant on imports, producing only 11% of its seafood through aquaculture and carrying a $24.2 billion seafood trade deficit (FAO 2024; NMFS 2024). Freshwater aquaculture—primarily catfish, crawfish, and trout—generated $872 million in 2022, and recent analysis shows U.S. aquaculture contributes $4 billion annually in production with several‑fold broader economic impacts (Kumar et al. 2024). Despite this national significance, aquaculture for food remains underdeveloped in the Great Lakes region, where research and management have long centered on recreational fisheries.
This seminar will connect national and regional perspectives on U.S. aquaculture growth. Mrs. Cherry will provide a brief overview of the direction U.S. aquaculture has taken in recent years, describing new policy initiatives and research investments that are working to foster sustainable U.S. aquaculture development at the national level. Dr. Stigers will present on several key initiatives that have been fundamental for supporting aquaculture in the Great Lakes region. Her initiatives include many collaborative projects focusing mainly on Great Lakes’ (1) governance and sustainability of seafood systems, and (2) consumer education and aquaculture literacy.

About the speaker: Dr. Lauren Stigers is a Michigan Sea Grant Extension Educator based in the Houghton–Hancock area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She specializes in aquaculture, commercial fisheries, seafood processing, and science‑based outreach, connecting industry needs with research, education, and community priorities. With a background spanning applied research, workforce development, and policy communication, Dr. Stigers leads collaborative initiatives that strengthen Great Lakes seafood systems, support working waterfronts, and advance sustainable aquaculture across Michigan.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

10/08/2026: Streamflow Forecasting using Physical-Aware AI/DL Models and Improving the Precipitation Forecasts at the Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Scale in Support of Adaptive Reservoir Operation
2026-10-08 11:00 - 12:00
Please join us for a Great Lakes Seminar Series – subscribe!
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: Virtual or NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall*
Presenter: Dr. Tiantian Yang, Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), University of Michigan
Title: Streamflow Forecasting using Physical-Aware AI/DL Models and Improving the Precipitation Forecasts at the Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Scale in Support of Adaptive Reservoir Operation

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Webinar Registration Link
About the presentation: Reservoirs and lakes are fundamental and multi-functional water infrastructures that collect, store, and deliver surface freshwater for a multitude of uses, including flood and fire control, recreation, wildlife habitat, residential, industrial, agricultural practices, irrigation, hydro-electric power generation, drought mitigation, and more. It is also a critical engineering environment that intervenes with both the hydrological cycle and human factors. Reservoir and lake release decisions, inflow forecasting, and storage management directly influence various aspects of socioeconomic functioning and our nation’s water resources’ security. In recent years, more frequent and severe abrupt weather extremes, natural hazards, aging infrastructure, and increased water demands due to population growth have placed another significant barrier preventing the effective, sustainable, and adaptive operation of the existing reservoir and lake systems. Therefore, new technologies and innovations are critically needed to improve the existing reservoir and lake operation and management, i.e., the “status quo”, of built water systems in our nation.
In support of adaptive reservoir operation, in this talk, Dr. Tiantian Yang will present his current research on enhancing streamflow prediction at subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescales by improving precipitation forecasts and hydrologic simulations through the integration of physical hydrologic models and physically-aware artificial intelligence and deep learning (AI/DL) tools. These hybrid models aim to retain the interpretability and physical consistency of traditional models while leveraging the pattern recognition and scalability of AI/DL. Case studies will demonstrate how these hybrid AI/DL models perform in forecasting flood events across hundreds of watersheds over CONUS, and how the precipitation could be better predicted at the S2S scale using existing seasonal forecast models

About the speaker: Dr. Tiantian Yang is currently a tenured associate professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan (UM) at Ann Arbor. Before joining UM, Dr. Yang was a tenured faculty in the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science (CEES) at the University of Oklahoma (OU). He was the associate director of the OU Hydrology & Water Security online master’s degree program at OU. Before becoming a faculty member in OU and UM, Dr. Yang worked in the private sector for a few years in Deltares Netherlands, whose former was Delft Hydraulics and GeoDelft University. During his time in the private sector and consulting world, Dr. Yang served many U.S. federal agencies as clients, including Bonneville Power Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the National Weather Service and its 13 River Forecast Centers. Dr. Yang was an AGU Hydrology Section Early Career Awardee (2025), and also an NSF Early Career Awardee (2023).
Dr.Yang obtained his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) in 2015, mentored by NAE and Distinguished Professor Dr. Soroosh Sorooshian. Yang’s master’s degree was in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Irvine (2010). His bachelor’s degree was also in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Tsinghua University, China (2009). Yang’s work is mainly supported by the NSF, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), DoD Engineering With Nature (EWN), the American Council for Education (ACE)’s International Partnership Program, NOAA, and the DOE’s Clean Energy Research Center on Water-Energy Technology (CERC-WET) Program.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.

11/05/2026: Algorithmic Foundations for Widespread Autonomous Marine Observation
2026-11-05 11:00 - 12:00
Please join us for a Great Lakes Seminar Series – subscribe!
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT
Location: Virtual or NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Superior Hall*
Presenter: Dr. Alan Papalia, Assistant Professor, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, University of Michigan
Title: Algorithmic Foundations for Widespread Autonomous Marine Observation

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Webinar Registration Link
About the presentation: TBD
About the speaker: Alan Papalia is an assistant professor in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he runs the Robotic Exploration Lab. He received his PhD in Ocean Engineering from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research focuses on algorithms to enable robots to explore, study, and understand the natural world, with an aim of dramatically increasing the amount and types of data we have access to. He is a recipient of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Best Paper Award and was selected as a 2025 Robotics: Science and Systems Pioneer.
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*IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION
As of July 2025 the GLERL facility can no longer accept visitors for the Great Lakes Seminar Series due to staffing shortages. Please attend virtually using the link above.
All seminar attendees are required to receive a visitor badge from the front desk at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory facility. Attendees need to present a valid U.S. photo ID or green card. If you are a Foreign National, we encourage you to attend virtually. For questions regarding building access, please email Margaret Throckmorton at throckmj@umich.edu. Additional questions? Contact Margaret Throckmorton: throckmj@umich.edu; visit ciglr.seas.umich.edu for more information.
