Weekly Highlights
MEMORANDUM
From: Susan Horton
Subject: Weekly Highlights, USGS National Wetlands Research
Center, May 5, 2008
Current
- USGS Purple Loosestrife Research and Workshop in Turkey: USGS scientist Beth Middleton was in Kutahya, Turkey, April 5 – 12, to conduct a workshop at Dumlumpinar University with Turkish and Czech collaborators on the purple loosestrife project. The goal of this project is to study invasive species such as purple loosestrife in their native environments (e.g. Eurasia), in order to better understand how to control them in North America. This same team of researchers is involved in a worldwide volunteer program for data collection, and common garden studies to examine the growth of various ecotypes of purple loosestrife collected along latitudinal gradients in both North America and Eurasia. Middleton was interviewed about her international research by two Turkish newspapers, including the Kutahya Ekspres and the Kutahya Gunluk Siyasi Gazette. (Beth Middleton, Lafayette, LA, 337-266-8618)
- USGS Wins Communication Awards: The USGS National Wetlands Research Center received two first-place awards and an award of excellence (third place) in the Blue Pencil and Gold Screen competition, sponsored by the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC). First-place awards were for conference materials designed by USGS contractor Christina Boudreaux for the International Delta Meeting and speech writing on “Communication during a Disaster ” by Gaye Farris. A partnership publication done with the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, “Vanishing Before Our Eyes,” was co-authored by USGS scientist Wylie Barrow.
The awards were presented at the NAGC Communications School held April 28-May 1, in Albuquerque, NM. The NAGC president announced that the annual award made by NAGC to support the future of government communications be known as the “Gaye Farris Scholarship Award.” Farris has been a member of NAGC for two decades, and has served the organization as president for three years and as vice president and secretary. The award cites Farris’s efforts in “restoring the organization’s mission and purpose” and her “insistence in providing quality professional development opportunities for government communicators,” which have “resulted in the betterment of the profession of government communications.” (Susan Horton, Lafayette, LA, 337-266-8655)
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