NRTS Awards Banquet
In conjunction with the SOARS Conference, a banquet honoring the NRTS scholars was held in Durham, North Carolina. The keynote speaker was Mr. James Harrington, the NASA MU-SPIN Project Manager at Goddard Space Flight Center.

"After dinner, Mr. James Harrington, MU-SPIN Project Manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, spoke briefly on the "Agenda for Environmental Research and Education". One point that he continually stressed was that "environmental research and education are key elements of global health and prosperity." Mr. Harrington also stated that "The most challenging scientific and engineering problems that we face at the beginning of the 21st century are environmental, including rapid climate and ecological change, degradation of freshwater resources, globalization of disease, threat of biological warfare and terrorism, and long term environmental security." At the conclusion of Mr. Harrington's talk, awardsa were distributed to the NRTS Research Scholars who would be presenting at the SOARS Conference on that Friday. Closing remarks were given by mr. Jose D'Arruda, Co-PI from the University of NC-Pembroke, Mr. Carl Seward from ECSU, and Mr. Sheldon Richburg from FSU."

Danielle Graves, ECSU Research Student