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Urban Coast Institute Future of the Ocean Symposium on October 26

Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute (UCI) will host the 8th Annual Future of the Ocean Symposium and Champions of the Ocean Awards Luncheon on Friday, October 26, 2012. The Symposium will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Woodrow Wilson Hall. The theme for the Symposium is “Wealth from the Oceans; Use Stewardship and Security. The Symposium will be followed by the Awards Luncheon from noon to 2 p.m. in the Versailles and Pompeii rooms on the first floor of Wilson Hall. The Symposium is free and open to the public. Tickets are required for the Awards Luncheon. For online reservations, visit the Urban Coast Institute.

The Symposium keynote will be delivered by renowned environmental scientist and advocate Professor Jesse Huntley Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University and vice president for programs for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Symposium panelists will include Rear Admiral Richard M. Larrabee, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.) and Port Commerce Director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Lawrence R. Dickerson, President and CEO, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc.; and Christopher L. Koch, President and CEO, World Shipping Council. The panel discussion will be moderated by Monmouth President Paul. G. Gaffney II.

Since 1989, Professor Ausubel has served on the faculty of The Rockefeller University, where he leads a research program to elaborate the technical vision of a large, prosperous society that emits little or nothing harmful and spares large amounts of land and sea for nature. Since 1994, he has concurrently served as a program manager in basic research for the Sloan Foundation. In the late 1990s, Professor Ausubel helped initiate the Census of Marine Life, an international observational program to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the oceans.

Professor Jesse Ausubel will be honored at the Awards Luncheon as a National Champion of the Ocean. Professor Ausubel spent the first decade of his career in Washington D.C. working for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering. On behalf of the Academies, he was one of the main organizers of the first United Nations World Climate Conference in Geneva in 1979, which substantially elevated the global warming issue on scientific and political agendas. He also coordinated and authored much of the 1983 NAS report Changing Climate, the first comprehensive review of the greenhouse effect.

The UCI will also present Ocean Leadership Awards to Rear Admiral Richard M. Larrabee, Lawrence R. Dickerson, and Christopher L. Koch. Mr. Dickerson and Mr. Koch served as members of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy with President Gaffney.

For tickets to the Awards Luncheon, Sponsorship Opportunities, donations or additional information, contact Lorraine Jordan at 732-263-5662 or ljordan@monmouth.edu.

About the Urban Coast Institute (UCI)

The UCI was established in September 2005 as one of the University’s Centers of Distinction. UCI’s mission is to serve the public interest as a forum for research, education, and collaboration that fosters the application of the best available science and policy to support healthy and productive coastal ecosystems and sustainable coastal communities. For more information, visit Urban Coast Institute.

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Media contact: Petra Ludwig at 732-263-5507