Atkinson Speaking at National Science Policy Conference

Larry Atkinson, the Old Dominion University Eminent Scholar and Samuel L. and Fay M. Slover Professor of Oceanography, will be an expert presenter at the American Geophysical Union's Science Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., April 30-May 3.

The conference, headquartered in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, will bring together scientists, legislators and other policymakers, as well as a variety of additional stakeholders, to discuss key Earth and space science topics that address challenges to our environment, economy, national security and public safety. Speakers and panelists will focus on science that helps inform policymakers' decisions related to natural hazards, natural resources, oceans and the Arctic.

Atkinson, who coordinates ODU's 18-month-old Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative, will be a member of a panel of experts discussing "The National Ocean Policy: An Overview of Science and the Implementation." The presentation will explore how the National Ocean Policy will affect the United States' society and economy.

The moderator of the panel will be Peter Colohan, senior policy analyst, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Other panelists will be Jim Geringer, director, Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. and former governor of Wyoming; Robert S. Marshall, president and CEO of Earth Networks; and Mike Freilich, director, Earth Science Division of NASA.

From 1991-94, Atkinson was with the interagency Ocean.US office, helping to create the integrated ocean-observing system for the nation. His ocean-observing activities continue locally, nationally and internationally. Those activities include promotion of a national system to measure ocean currents using radar, as well as local and regional ocean observing. He is chair of the National Science Foundation Ocean Observing Science Committee. Recently he has done research in the area of offshore wind energy.