When: Monday, July 19 at 4:00pm
Title: A Smoky Mountain Quilt
Charles Maynard is a Storyteller and the Director of Development for the Holston Conference Camp and Retreat Ministries. In addition, he has authored several books including Churches of the Smokies and co-authored Time Well Spent-Family Hiking in the Smokies and Waterfalls and Cascades of the Great Smoky Mountains. A children’s family book, Going Along to the Great Smoky Mountains, was published in 2008. Charles also is the author of Blue Ridge Mountains: Ancient and Majestic with photographer Jerry Green and co-author of Family Hiking in the Smokies.
When: Tuesday, July 20 at 8:30am
Title: Downstream: From the Mountains to the Ocean - 25 years of TV production with "The Heartland Series" documenting some of the richest freshwater streams in America, including: the Clinch River, Citico Creek, Abrams Creek.
Bill Landry is the voice, host, narrator, and co-producer of The Heartland Series. For more than 25 years, this program has continued to celebrate the people and the land of the entire Appalachian region. The Heartland Series has received three Emmy Awards. Bill has written and directed many of the episodes. As a graduate of the Dallas Theatre Center with a Master of Fine Arts degree, Bill considers himself a lover of theatrical crafts that have an educational purpose and has portrayed numerous characters on the series. Prior to joining WBIR/TV, he was an accomplished theatre professional and performed a one-man show, “Einstein the Man,” before hundreds of groups and organizations in 38 states and Canada.
When: Tuesday, July 20 at 8:30am
Title: Freshwater Pearls of Tennessee - The Only Freshwater Pearl Farm in North America
Bob Keast is the owner of Birdsong Resort Marina on Kentucky Lake in Camden, Tennessee. Birdsong Resort is home to North America’s only freshwater pearl culturing facility, and is the official historical site of pearl culturing for the State of Tennessee (enacted 2004), growing the official State of Tennessee gem (enacted 1979) - the freshwater pearl.
Bob is the owner of Birdsong Resort, Marina and Lakeside RV Campground, a 58-acre recreational complex that has been operated by Bob Keast and family in the true sense of southern hospitality as a second-generation owner since 1961. Bob’s theory: “Get away from the daily grind and enjoy the great outdoors which is one of God’s gifts to man." Relax on the largest man-made lake in America, Kentucky Lake in western Tennessee.
When: Tuesday, July 20 at 12:45pm
Title: The Secret of the Seven and The L.A.S.T. Book Project
Heralded time and again for her unique young adult science education novels, author educator Merrie Koester Southgate’s newest work, Agnes Pflumm and the Secret of the Seven, is an ocean adventure novel unlike any you have ever read. Ancient pictographs and the urgent warnings from an extinct civilization leap from its pages. The future of the ocean planet is at stake, and seven primitive pictures hold the secret for its survival. A terrible, unspeakably EVIL IT is on the verge of taking the ocean into inescapable ruin. Even IF Agnes Pflumm discovers the Secret of the Seven, it will not be enough unless....
At NMEA 2008 in Savannah, GA., Merrie introduced the L.A.S.T. Book Project, a Literacy-based, Arts-infused, Science-centered, and Technology-driven approach to bringing the ocean into the minds and hearts of even the struggling reader. Tuesday’s presentation will address the many ways that literature can be used as a bridge to learning ocean science content and as a way of bringing students to science through reading - at a time when so many of our students are reading below grade level. To learn more, go to www.agnespflumm.com. Book signing to follow presentation.
Listen for the sounds of the calling drums of Inner Rhythm Drum Circle, http://innerhythms.com/index.htm, led by Chip Burr, who will accompany Merrie during this performance/presentation, which will be followed by a booksigning of Merries's new ocean education novel, Agnes Pflumm and the Secret of the Seven. NOTE: Merrie will be giving away coupons for 30% off of classroom sets of her novels to all who attend the presentation. She will also donate 10% of all NMEA sales of her science education novels to NMEA!
When: Tuesday, July 20 at 4:15pm
Title: Update on the Smokies All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory
Todd P. Witcher is the Executive Director of Discover Life in America. DLIA is the non-profit coordinating the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Todd is an eighth generation Tennessean. Before becoming the ED at DLIA he worked as an educator for Ijams Nature Center for 16 years. Todd has an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee in Biology (1987), a Masters in Business from Lincoln Memorial University (1991), and a Masters in Education from the University of Tennessee (1997).
When: Wednesday, July 21 at 8:30am
Title: A Tale of Two Oceans
>Michael A. Gibson received his B.S. in Geology from the College of William and Mary in 1979, his M.S. in Geology from Auburn University in 1983. Upon completion of his M.S. Gibson served as an instructor at Auburn for the 1983 academic year. He then moved to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he obtained his Ph.D. in Geology in 1988. Since 1988 he has been on faculty at the University of Tennessee at Martin, currently holding the rank of Full Professor. He is an Associate Curator for the Pink Palace Museum & Coon Creek Science Center and spends his summers taking Tennessee teachers through the paleoceans of Tennessee and teaching marine geology for the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. Gibson’s research projects include Silurian-Devonian paleoecology and taphonomy, paleoecology of the Late Cretaceous Coon Creek Fauna, paleobotany and paleoecology of the Claiborne Formation of West Tennessee and Pennsylvanian of Alabama, and geology and paleontology of Belize, Central America and stromatolites of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Gibson was the 2003 Higher Education Science Teacher of the Year and 2006 Distinguished Educator of the year for the Tennessee Science Teachers Association. Gibson was Secretary (1989-1994) and President (1994-1996) of the Southeastern Section of the Paleontological Society and in his second term as National Chair of Education and Outreach for the Paleontological Society. He is the academic advisor for the Tennessee Earth Science Teachers (TEST), and President of the Tennessee Academy of Science. He also serves as the Geology & Geography Editor of that journal.
When: Wednesday, July 21 at 8:30am
Title: The Gray Fossil Site: A Unique Forest Refugium from the Appalachians of Tennessee
Steven C. Wallace graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. in Geology from Bowling Green State University in 1995, received his M.S. in Geology (Vertebrate Paleontology) from Fort Hays State University in 1997, and Ph.D. in Geology (Vertebrate Paleontology) from the University of Iowa, in 2001. Since then, he has been on faculty at the East Tennessee State University (ETSU), where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences. Of his more noteworthy accomplishments at ETSU, Wallace was the central figure in designing the new Natural History Museum that was recently constructed next to the Miocene-aged Gray Fossil Site in Gray, TN. In addition, he received the Distinguished Service Award within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in 2007, served as a Senator on the Faculty Senate from the Fall 2003 to 2006, and is currently serving on the CAS Promotion and Tenure Committee.
Professionally, Wallace is a member of several organizations, including the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), American Quaternary Association (AMQUA), Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP), and National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). Wallace is also a Senior Researcher within the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology, at ETSU. Wallace Co-organized (and initiated) the first annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology, held at the Natural History Museum and Gray Fossil Site, June 18th-21st, 2008. This newly formed organization held a meeting again in 2009 and is planning the meetings for 2010 and 2011.
Though his early work focused on Pleistocene rodents, his current research centers around the Gray Fossil Site. Specifically, Wallace specializes in small carnivores including a new species of Eurasian badger, and a new genus and species of red panda; both of which he named back in 2004. In addition, Wallace has published papers on the extraordinary sample of fossil dwarf tapirs from the site, as well as the hippo-like rhinoceros. Moreover, Wallace recently finished a book chapter on the fossil history of red pandas that is in press. Lastly, collaborations from this chapter resulted in a trip to Spain this last summer to work at a fossil carnivore locality near Madrid. This famous locality is best known for its well preserved (and articulated) skeletons of the large saber-toothed cat, Machairodus.
When: Wednesday, July 21 at 3:30pm
Dr. Eugenie Clark is a world-renowned ichthyologist and authority on sharks who is popularly known as the SHARK LADY. Although she is now retired from teaching in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she joined the faculty in 1968, she still holds the title of Senior Research Scientist and Professor Emerita. She currently works on her research in the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory, where her title is Senior Research Scientist and Founding Director.
She was a research assistant at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at the New York Zoological Society, and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She was the founding director (1955 to 1967) of the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, now a leading center for shark research called the Mote Marine Laboratory with which she is still affiliated. Dr. Clark is the recipient of three honorary D.Sc. degrees and awards from the National Geographic Society, the Explorers Club, the Underwater Society of America, the American Littoral Society, the Gold Medal Award of the Society of Women Geographers, and the President’s Medal of the University of Maryland. She has authored three books and over 160 scientific and popular articles.
She has conducted 71 deep submersible dives. Her latest research projects concern the behavior of tropical sand fishes and deep sea sharks. These studies have been featured in 12 articles she has written for National Geographic magazine.
When: Thursday, July 22 at 8:30am
Title: Sharks Under Ice
George W. Benz is a Professor of Biology at Middle Tennessee State University. A native of New England, George earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Connecticut and was employed for 5 years as a Fisheries Biologist with the Connecticut Bureau of Fisheries. He subsequently earned a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia and took employment at the Tennessee Aquarium. At the Aquarium for 12 years, George transitioned from the Aquarium’s first Curator of Fishes to its first Chief Research Scientist and founding Director of the Tennessee Aquarium Research Institute. George’s research on sharks and parasites of fishes has taken him from the Arctic to the tropics. He has authored and edited over 100 scientific publications and his research has been the focus of articles in Discover, National Geographic, and Highlights for Children as well as other magazines and popular books. A believer that science should be interesting and accessible to all, George presented and narrated a 1-hr television special on parasites called Body Snatchers for the National Geographic Society and his collaborative Greenland shark research was part of the focus of a Discovery Channel special called Jurassic Shark.
When: Thursday, July 22 at 8:30am
Title: The first-ever successful live capture by hand via SCUBA, successful long-distance transport over water and land by ship and semi-truck, and the unsuccessful captive maintenance of the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus).
Joseph M. Choromanski is the Vice President of Husbandry for Ripley Entertainment in Orlando. In this position, Joe is charge of animal care for Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and is involved in new aquarium and exhibit development. Joe is also very active in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and served on its prestigeous Accreditation Commission for nine years and is currently serving on the Government Affairs Committee. Joe is also a longstanding member and former chair of the Zoo and Aquarium Committee of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA).
Prior to joining the Ripley’s Aquarium team in mid-1998, Joe was the Curator of Husbandry Operations at the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Joe previously also worked as the Assistant Director of Husbandry and Senior Curator of Water Quality and Animal Health at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, Louisiana, and as the Curator at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, in Gloucester Point, Virginia.
Joe received his Bachelor of Science degree in marine biology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1981. He received his Master of Science degree from Oregon State University in 1985, focusing his research on fish physiology.
When: Thursday, July 22 at 12:45pm
Title: A discussion providing credible science outreach regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
When: Thursday, July 22 at 2:45pm
Title: From Water Bears to Whale Sharks!
Dr. Diane R. Nelson is Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences at East Tennessee State University, having retired in May 2003 after 35 years of service. In 1993, she received the ETSU Distinguished Faculty Award, the university’s highest award for combined achievements in teaching, research, and service. In April 2000 she was selected by the Association of Southeastern Biologists as the recipient of the Meritorious Teaching Award, the society’s most prestigious award. Although she “officially” retired from ETSU, she continues to conduct research on tardigrades (“water bears”) and marine fishes and to provide service to her profession. She still teaches, giving special presentations to elementary, middle, and high schools in the area, in addition to ETSU’s Alliance for Continued Learning. She occasionally teaches marine biology at ETSU and “Shark School” at the Natural History Museum at the Gray Fossil Site.
Her Ph.D. dissertation on the tardigrades (water bears) of Roan Mountain led to an invitation to present her research at the First International Symposium on the Tardigrada, held in Italy in 1975. Since then Dr. Nelson and her students have continued to conduct research on the ecology and systematics of tardigrades, collaborating with colleagues in the U.S., Australia, South America, Japan, and Europe, and presenting the research at national and international meetings. She is one of only two tardigradologists who have presented at all 11 international symposia. Dr. Nelson has also served as host for several graduate students from other countries.
In addition to her interest in invertebrates, especially tardigrades, Dr. Nelson developed a passion for marine biology and underwater photography in 1980. She enrolled in courses at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research and other marine biological stations in Puerto Rico, Texas, and Georgia. As a result, Dr. Nelson taught marine biology and invertebrate zoology at ETSU, and she has led students on field trip courses to Bermuda, the Bahamas, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and Bonaire. After teaching Chautauqua short courses for college teachers at the Bermuda Biological Station for several years, she taught college students and teacher workshops in the summer program at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Ft. Pierce, FL. During the past 20 years, she has conducted research on fish behaviors with Dr. Eugenie Clark (National Geographic’s “Shark Lady,” Senior Research Scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida). These studies have included whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez, sand tilefishes in Belize, gobies in the Red Sea, and triggerfish, poisonous catfish, and convict fish in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. The recent research on the convict fish was featured in the June 2005 issue of National Geographic and was published in December 2006 as a 42-page article in the scientific journal “Aqua.” Dr. Nelson’s “Ocean Gems” calendars (1998, 2002-2003, 2008-2009) of her underwater photographs have received numerous regional and state awards and have been sold to benefit the ETSU Honors Program, Reese Museum, and Natural History Museum. She was featured in the August 2003 issue of Southern Living: “Diving Diva...a spitfire in scuba gear.” Another article about Diane, “Diving into Life,” was published in the March/April 2007 issue of the regional magazine Marquee. Although she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2002, she is now cancer-free and continues to dive and take underwater photos.