On May 1-2, we held our annual UMCES faculty convocation- this year's convocation was hosted by Horn Point Laboratory. Our guest speaker was Bill Chameides, the Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. The focus of this year's convocation was 'The future of graduate education at UMCES', as we have a new joint program and are in the midst of a curriculum revision for the multi-campus Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences program.

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'Scientists who made a difference' series … This blog accompanying the biographical sketch of Johannes Kepler looks at a selection of his writing as poetry and a selection of his scientific sketches as art. The 'Poetry' use Kepler's exact words (translated into English) in prose form, using the title 'Absolutely Settled' to focus on the cadence and word choice. It was a strong statement in support of the Copernican view of the earth and planets revolving around the sun.

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I visited the late Peter Oliver (1957-2012) following his retirement lecture in Brisbane, Australia in August 2012. I stayed with Peter and his wife Ann in their home in Maleny and when Peter was feeling well enough, we would work together on our book 'Dancing with Dugongs: Having fun and developing a practical environmental philosophy for teaching and research'.

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'Scientists who made a difference' series … Johannes Kepler was a German Lutheran astronomer who created laws for planetary motion, developed an important improvements for telescopes, and laid the foundations for Newtonian physics. Kepler was born near Stuttgart, Germany in 1571. Johannes and his two older brothers and sister were raised by their mother, as their father left home to fight as a mercenary. Johannes was born prematurely and was sickly as a child.

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'Environmental literacy' series … The seven environmental literacy principles for the Lower Mississippi River are the following: • The Lower Mississippi River is undammed from St. Louis to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. • The considerable commerce through the Lower Mississippi River includes oceanic transport up to Baton Rouge and barge transport throughout the remainder. • Flooding and drought affect the river and adjacent floodplain.

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Since Memphis, Tennessee is the blues music capital of the world, just upriver from the jazz music capital in New Orleans and a short distance from Nashville, TN, the country music capital, it seemed appropriate to capture our lower Mississippi River workshop in the form of a blues song. Memphis is where Sam Phillips at Sun Records recorded such music luminaries as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

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Part 3. Restoration projects, organizations and impressions … This is Part 3 of a three part blog series on the Los Angeles River, based on a reconnaissance of the Los Angeles River conducted by Bill Dennison and Simon Costanzo from IAN, organized by the Council for Watershed Health on 1-2 April 2014. This blog focuses on various restoration projects and organizations. Restoration project - Los Angeles State Historic Park ('The Cornfield'):

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Part 2. Viewing river features from different vantage points … This is Part 2 of a three part blog series on the Los Angeles River, based on a reconnaissance of the Los Angeles River conducted by Bill Dennison and Simon Costanzo from IAN, organized by the Council for Watershed Health on 1-2 April 2014. This blog focuses on the river features that could be viewed from different vantage points alongside the river or from elevated vistas. Mouth of the Los Angeles River (left to right):

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Part 1. Geography, hydrology (and floods), and water cycle … This is Part 1 of a three part blog series on the Los Angeles River, based on a reconnaissance of the Los Angeles River conducted by Bill Dennison and Simon Costanzo from IAN, organized by the Council for Watershed Health on 1-2 April 2014. This blog focuses on the geography, hydrology (including floods), and water cycle for the Los Angeles River.

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Once again, a contingent from IAN (Heath Kelsey, Bill Nuttle, Caroline Wicks, Brianne Walsh and me) gathered along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River to meet with a diverse stakeholder group to discuss the issues associated with the Mississippi River. In this case, we learned about the issues associated with the lower Mississippi River, which were surprisingly different from the issues in the Upper Mississippi River and the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers from our previous workshops.

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