Contact: Dr. Ambrose Jearld, Jr. NEFSC/NMFS/NOAA 166 Water Street Woods Hole, MA Tel: 508-495-2318 Email: Ambrose.Jearld@noaa.gov Program of the 2001 Conference (PDF) - Sponsors - Organizing committees - Featured speakers - Agenda - Panels and workshops - Student and researchers abstracts - Registrants Proceedings from the 1999 Conference (PDF) Proceedings from the 1995 Conference (PDF)

Expanding Opportunities: Background and Goal Through coordination, collaboration, and communication, Expanding Opportunities interactions continue between NOAA and the academic community, particularly the Historically Black and Minority Serving Colleges and Universities (HBMSCU). The goal is to build institutional capacity and sustained partnerships based on the work by many people over a period of several years, and to strengthen linkages between undergraduates and graduate studies in marine, environmental, and atmospheric fields. In 1995, the expanding opportunities effort culminated in a Conference held at Hampton University, where we started to explore opportunities in oceanic sciences. The proceedings of this Conference have been published and are available at this web site. As interest grew, the scope of the 1999 Conference was broadened to include the atmospheric and environmental topics. In fact, exciting earth science research in the 21st Century is moving toward the view that embraces all three, oceanic, environmental, and atmospheric processes, especially as they are expressed in near-shore coastal environments, as in weather, water, and climate forecasting. More than 250 persons attended the 1999 Conference held at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The Conference would build expanded personal networking among those who can make a difference in attracting and retaining minority students in graduate science studies in the marine, environmental, and atmospheric fields. In addition, an Implementation Committee was formed to review and make certain that appropriate action is taken to make the recommendations of the Conference come to fruition.

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