ASLO Announces the 2016 Global Outreach Initiative Award Winners

ASLO Announces the 2016 Global Outreach Initiative Award Winners

The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2016 ASLO Global Outreach Initiative Awards. The ASLO Global Outreach Initiative provides mini-grants to ASLO members to conduct outreach projects in their own communities.

This year’s recipients are:

  • Using Puppet Shows to Educate Children about Plastic Waste Problem in the Ocean (PEPO project); María Aranguren-Gassis, University of Vigo (Vigo, Spain)
  • Communicating aquatic science and climate change to arctic tourists; David Seekell, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University and Keith Larson, Climate Impacts Research Centre, Umeå University (Abisko, Sweden)
  • RAP for Public Engagement with aquatic Research and Science (RAPPERS), Domenico D'Alelio & Davide Di Cioccio - Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples, in collaboration with music producer Fabio “Musta” Orza. (Campania Region, Italy)
  • Practical skills transfer to undergraduate students; physico-chemical and biological parameters as an indication of Lagos lagoon health status; Oguguah Ngozi Margaret, Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research, Ayorinde Folake and Wilfred-Ekprikpo Peace C., Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (Lagos, Nigeria).

A key component of ASLO’s mission is to advance public awareness and education about aquatic resources and research. In response to an increasingly international membership, ASLO launched the Global Outreach Initiative in 2012 as a way to assist ASLO members outside the U.S. in communicating aquatic science to non-technical audiences. “The ASLO Global Outreach Initiative helps our members make oceanography and limnology research more relevant to broad audiences.  With support from the Board, funds were distributed in 2012 and now again in 2016 to a diverse set of creative, well-designed, and impactful outreach projects,” said ASLO Outreach Subcommittee chair Bob Chen (University of Massachusetts – Boston). This year’s awardees were selected from a pool of 17 high-quality proposals from 12 countries. “Many more proposals were deserving of funding than were able to be supported, demonstrating the need, capacity, and excitement among ASLO members around the globe for education and outreach activities,” noted Chen.

Current ASLO President Linda Duguay (USC Wrigley Institute and USC Sea Grant Program), a member of ASLO Outreach and Education committees for the last 10 years, is a strong supporter of the Global Outreach Initiative. “I am very pleased that in this second round of the program we are able to support 4 outstanding proposals - 3 in Europe and 1 in Africa. The Global Outreach Initiative fits well within the ASLO Mission and our recently adopted 2015 Strategic Plan in terms of increasing diversity, internationalization, and bringing the sciences of Limnology and Oceanography to broad audiences from the general public to K – 16 students. I hope to see a third round of this program during my presidency.” Award winners will submit a report on their project for publication in the L&O Bulletin. When appropriate, project products may also be published on ASLO’s YouTube channel and social media channels for broader exposure. Reports from projects funded by the 2012 ASLO Global Outreach Initiative were published Nov 2013 issue of the L&O Bulletin.

--- ASLO is an international aquatic science society that was founded in 1948. For more than 60 years, it has been the leading professional organization for researchers and educators in the field of aquatic science. The purpose of ASLO is to foster a diverse, international scientific community that creates, integrates and communicates knowledge across the full spectrum of aquatic sciences, advances public awareness and education about aquatic resources and research, and promotes scientific stewardship of aquatic resources for the public interest. Its products and activities are directed toward these ends. With more than 3,500 members worldwide, the society has earned an outstanding reputation and is best known for its journals and interdisciplinary meetings. For more information about ASLO, please visit our website at www.ASLO.org.

Contact: Dr. Adrienne Sponberg, ASLO Director of Communications and Science

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