On September 21 – 23, Elizabeth City State University was represented at the 18th West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Workshop.  Representatives included Ya’Shonti Bridgers, and Dr. Malcolm LeCompte of Elizabeth City State University, Jessica Brownlow of Mississippi Valley State University, and Kirsten Hawk of Spelman College.  At this year’s workshop students were provided with the opportunity to present their summer research from the Research Experience for Undergraduate in Ocean Marine and Polar Sciences (REU OMPS).  The student poster presentation reflected research titled Temporal Reduction of the Ice Shelf in Pine Island Bay Antarctica: 1972 – 2003. 

The venue for the 2011WAIS workshop meeting was situated in the Denver-Boulder area, at the Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch near Loveland, Colorado. This multidisciplinary Earth system science workshop focused on the unique glaciological, geological, oceanographic, and climatic aspects of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and related regions elsewhere in the cryosphere. The theme for this year's meeting was Music of the Spheres, underscoring the need to look across disciplines to understand this system.

The main agenda began on Wednesday morning, September 21, and was organized in topics, with 30-minute keynote talks leading some sessions, followed by contributed talks, and a panel discussion at the end of the sessions with the speakers. The meeting concluded at 2pm Friday, September 23. There was ample time for discussion and interaction in the retreat style of the meeting, and extended time for poster presentations. This characteristic of WAIS meetings has made them very effective for information exchange and idea sharing

Ya'Shonti Bridgers(ECSU), Jessica Brownlow(MVSU), and Kirsten Hawk(SC)
Temporal Reduction of the Ice Shelf in Pine Island Bay Antarctica: 1972 -2003: poster

TSAID NASA grant NNX08AE01G