World Oceans Day 2020 Virtual Event

The United Nations celebrates World Oceans Day every year on 8 June. The groundswell grows each year, as countries and communities use this day to celebrate all the ocean gives us. This year’s theme is “Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean.” We invite you to join us on Monday, June 8 at 6:00 PM for a special OSU Science Pub World Oceans Day Virtual Event. This evening event will feature a screening of Oregon State Productions’ Heceta Bank and a companion short OSU produced film, guest Q&A panel, trivia, art, music, and a special reading of a children’s ocean storybook. For more information and tickets.

Jack Barth, Executive Director, Marine Studies Initiative, and Professor of Oceanography, Oregon State University-Panel Moderator

Jack Barth is the Executive Director of Oregon State University’s Marine Studies Initiative. He is also a Professor of oceanography in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS). Jack’s research seeks to understand how coastal ocean circulation and water properties shape and influence coastal marine ecosystems. He has led a number of research, technology development and ocean observing system projects off Oregon and around the world.

 Bill Pearcy, Professor Emeritus, College of Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University

During his time at OSU, Dr. Pearcy studied ocean ecology and fishes. In 1960, He became one of the first faculty members in the Department of Oceanography and is considered a world-renowned authority on many aspects of biological oceanography.

Ana Spalding, Assistant Professor of Marine and Coastal Policy – School of Public Policy, Oregon State University

I am an Assistant Professor of Marine and Coastal Policy at Oregon State University; and Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Coiba Research Station in Panama. I have an interdisciplinary social science background in environmental studies, marine policy and international studies. Professionally, I have experience as a practitioner (mainly in Panama) and an academic (Panama and the U.S.). I am also fascinated by interdisciplinarity and collaboration, where it no longer represents an abstract concept, but instead has become critical for addressing climate change and other pressing threats to marine environments and the people who depend on them.

Waldo Wakefield, Courtesy Associate Professor in Marine Resources Management at Oregon State University and in the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies

Dr. Wakefield is a biological oceanographer and fisheries biologist who studies marine habitat ecology, fisheries oceanography, fisheries conservation engineering, and the application of advanced technologies. He has served on a number of NOAA Fisheries and Pacific Fisheries Management Council habitat-related working groups and committees, including those established to identify and conserve essential fish habitat for Pacific coast groundfishes.

Saskia Madlener, Science Documentary Producer, Oregon State Productions, OSU

Since completing a master’s in Marine Resource Management at OSU, Saskia has travelled everywhere from the Greenland ice sheet to the Marianas Trench to document researchers and tell their story of exploration and discovery. She is committed to humanizing the people behind the science through visual storytelling and currently works with a talented team of skilled videographers, editors, writers and producers at Oregon State Productions.  

Tom McCambridge, Biology Undergraduate Student, Oregon State University

My name is Tom McCambridge, and I was born and raised in San Jose, California before coming to Oregon State to pursue a career in marine science. I do not know what exactly the future holds for my career, but I know it will be something related to the effects of climate change in the ocean. I am particularly interested in the large-scale systems and how they will be altered in the near future. I am a biology major with a marine option and a minor in chemistry.