7TH ANNUAL NOAA-CREST SYMPOSIUM WAS HELD ON APRIL 27-28, 2011 IN HAMPTON UNIVERSITY, VA

Posted on May 17, 2011

The goal of the CREST annual symposium is to bring together the student and scientific community working on NOAA related sciences at a national level science and education forum on Earth System Science with a special emphasis on remote sensing applications and related sciences.

Symposium participants share research results and have the opportunity of developing professional networks with scientists and educators from academia, industry, and NOAA and other federal agencies. Forty five oral and twenty three poster presentations were made during the two day symposium on various research themes such as Air, Climate, Coastal Waters, Hydro-Climate, and Land-Hydrology through nine technical sessions.  

The symposium was kicked-off at 9:00AM on April 27 with opening remarks by Dr. Pat McCormick, CREST Campus PI at Hampton University and Dr. Pamela Hammond, Provost, Hampton University.  Dr. Bradley Pierce from NOAA/NESDIS/STAR gave a keynote address on Chemical and Aerosol Data Assimilation studies, followed by Chantell Haskins from NOAA/OED/EPP whose presentation was “The World of NOAA Scholarships and Opportunities – An Overview”. The opening session concluded with the CREST overview presentation by Dr. Reza Khanbilvardi, CREST Director.

The later part of the day one was filled with several other oral presentations under various technical sessions, followed by the students’ poster session. The day concluded with a banquet at the Virginia Air and Space Museum.

The oral presentations continued on the second day under various sessions including Satellite Calibration and Validation; Hydro-Climate; Climate Studies and Remote Sensing Algorithm Development and Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem Monitoring. 

The symposium concluded with closing remarks by Dr. Khanbilvardi and best students’ awards presented by the CREST Advisory Board Chair Dr. Soroosh Sorooshian.

Students Awarded

Alvaro Gonzalez, PhD Student from CREST/CUNY won the first oral presentation award; while Debra Kollonige, doctoral student from CREST/UMBC and Estatio Gutierrez, doctoral student from CREST/CUNY won the second and the third prize respectively.  Allen Lizarraga, a master’s student from CREST/UPRM; Robert Lee and Christopher Spells both doctoral students from CREST/HU won the first, second and third poster presentation awards respectively.

The students’ presentations were judged by panel of judges from NOAA, Hampton University and NOAA CREST members.

Dr. Sorooshian appraised the CREST members for their excellent research and education work in the NOAA related sciences.