ODU Oceanographer, Engineer Slated as Guests for 'With Good Reason' Show, 'Sea Ice and Sunlight'

The Earth's changing climate and its energy needs are the subject of an upcoming episode of the NPR radio show "With Good Reason," which will feature the expertise of two Old Dominion University researchers.

Victoria Hill, assistant research professor of biological oceanography in the College of Sciences, and Sylvain Marsillac, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Batten College of Engineering and Technology, will appear on the show "Sea Ice and Sunlight" the week of Aug. 27. The program will be broadcast locally at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, on 89.5 WHRV-FM.

In recent years, sea ice in the Arctic has been melting at an alarming rate, and scientists fear that this shrinkage could contribute to rising sea levels worldwide. Hill was one of five scientists who spent six weeks in the Arctic's barren, frozen landscape, where temperatures fall to minus 40. What she found in her core samples could provide clues as to why the ice is melting.

Also featured on the show will be a discussion of the energy crisis of the 1970s and the attention it has brought to solar technologies as an alternative to oil. Marsillac, one of the nation's experts on photovoltaic energy, says the United States should continue to fund solar energy research if it wants to secure energy independence.

"With Good Reason" airs weekly on public radio stations, reaching a diverse audience in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and portions of Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, California and Alaska. The show is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and funded by public universities from around the state, in an effort to spotlight innovative research being done at Virginia's public universities. Broadcast times around the state are posted at http://www.withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.

ODU faculty and staff are encouraged to join the "With Good Reason" Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/With-Good-Reason-radio/203141233005) and subscribe to the podcast: www.tinyurl.com/wgrpodcast.

Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature will be posted to the "With Good Reason" website the week of the show. A permanent link can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/08/sea-ice-and-sunlight/.