August 7, 2003
Lab celebrating first 100 years with symposia
Two symposia later this month on San Juan Island are among six to be held in the coming two years to mark the 100th anniversary of the Friday Harbor Laboratories.
The acclaimed facility supports UW education and research in a variety of marine-related disciplines, which have attracted hundreds of national and international scholars.
The first symposium, Aug. 23–26, focuses on the impacts of instruction and looks at how course-work and mentoring have influenced biological research and education. The conference is being organized by Alan Kohn, professor emeritus of biology, and will highlight the contributions to advanced education made at Friday Harbor Labs by national and international marine science educators.
That conference will be followed Aug. 27–30 with a symposium on global biogeochemical cycles, focusing on topics such as the cycle of organic matter in soils, rivers and marine environments; dissolved organic matter; and organic matter preservation. Organizers include Steven Emerson, UW oceanography professor, and Pedro Verdugo, UW bioengineering professor.
The remaining four symposia will be in June 2004, August 2004 and June 2005.
The last five symposia all deal with specific scientific topics. The first is the only one to emphasize the impacts of the Friday Harbor labs’ educational program.
For the first program, 17 present and former instructors will discuss the educational program’s contribution to their research in areas that Friday Harbor Labs has traditionally emphasized. They include biomechanics, marine botany, comparative embryology, evolutionary developmental biology, fish biology, invertebrate biology, molecular biology, and physical biology.
“These distinguished teacher-scholars will address not only the past importance of the labs’ educational program, but they will also focus more broadly on particularly desirable future directions in the education and training of biologists,” Kohn said.
In addition, a number of former students and post-doctoral researchers who have since made important contributions to their fields have been asked to take part, he said.
For additional information or details on attending the educational impacts symposium, Kohn can be reached at 206-616-4383 or kohn@u.washington.edu.
