On May 20th, 2017, two former students of Michael Kemp, Jeremy Testa and Cassie Gurbisz, surprised him with a retirement party. For the venue, they chose the the pavilion at Horn Point Laboratory, which is part of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. His son Cullen Murray-Kemp and daughter-in-law Marissa Joiner drove up from Charleston, South Carolina to surprise him.

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Before starting at the Integration and Application Network (IAN) in 2005, Jane Hawkey worked for Washington Sea Grant, and then as a research assistant for several different Horn Point Laboratory faculty. There, she attended research cruises, produced newsletters and helped with publication graphics. These skills and experiences helped her when she joined IAN. She rose to IAN Senior Science Communicator within a short time period.

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Dr. Don Boesch, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Image credit: Baltimore Sun … We had two very nice events to celebrate Don Boesch’s twenty seven year career as President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The first was held on June 1 at the Institute of Marine Environmental Technology in Baltimore with some 300 people attending. It featured many speeches and testimonials and was a grand event.

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The Biscayne Bay Marine Health Inaugural Summit was held at the Florida International University Biscayne Bay campus. I flew down at the invitation of Jim Fourqurean, my long time friend and seagrass colleague, who provided a very nice introduction. There were around two hundred people in attendance and my role was to provide a lunch time talk to relate some lessons from other locations that were relevant to Biscayne Bay.

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I was asked to speak at a ‘Data to Decisions’ workshop at the Wye Research and Education Center on the summer solstice (21 June 2017). The workshop was sponsored by the Maryland Water Monitoring Council (MWMC). Caroline Donovan, the Integration and Application Network’s (IAN) Program Manager, is on the MWMC board and is also the lead IAN representative on the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative.

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8th World Water Forum Poster. Image credit: Bill Dennison … The Eighth World Water Forum is going to be held in Brazilia, Brazil in March 2018. As a lead up to the World Water Forum, a series of regional events are being held to initiate discussions and create enthusiasm for the World Water Forum. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Coca-Cola Company co-sponsored the Sharing Water event on 5 June 2017 as one of these regional events.

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The Integration and Application Network annual retreat was held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center on Kent Narrows on May 31. Two dozen IAN staff spent the day introducing themselves to each other, discussing the IAN report card and the IAN brand. This annual gathering includes our University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Chesapeake Bay Program staff (UMCES@CBP).

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In a previous blog, I suggested six elements for science synthesis that we have employed in the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Synthesis (SAV SYN) effort. These six elements were the following: • Experienced leadership … • Limited size … • Multiple immersive workshops … • Regular communication … • Flexibility … • Product focus … I also discussed the following enabling conditions:

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We recently gathered the submerged aquatic vegetation synthesis team (SAV SYN) at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Annapolis office. This fourth and final working group meeting was convened to make progress on our two remaining publications, using Structural Equation Modeling (led by Jon Lefcheck) and seagrass trait analysis (led by Chris Patrick). The other major effort was to develop a segment analysis of SAV trends, drivers and factors affecting projections.

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The 2017 annual meeting of the US chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecologists was held in Baltimore at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the Inner Harbor. Andrew Elmore, my University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science colleague, invited me to present the banquet keynote. Since any after dinner talk should not be all too serious, Andrew and I opted to develop an interactive session.

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