Written by Sean Beckwith, PhD student
PORTLAND, OR - With vibrant, artistic, earth-conscious Portland as a backdrop, oceanographers and aquatic scientists converged on the Oregon Convention Center from February 11th through the 16th for the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting.
The conference facilitated many scientific presentations, successful collaborations, long-time-no-see reunions, engaging social activities, and interactions between art and science. The conference also inspired a lot of young scientists, and invigorated veteran scientists, to confidently assert their research findings and reach out to collaborators around the world. Over 30 students, researchers and professors from the USF College of Marine Science attended OSM this year to present posters and talks or to chair meetings.
The art theme persistent in past OSM gatherings became a focus of this year’s meeting. As described by the organizers of the Fluid Oceans Pecha Kucha event, both science and fine arts are creative endeavors pursued by creative people. This passion to discover and to create is what leads scientists at CMS to complete their work and to share it broadly.