Celebrating Earth Day at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
On April 29th, Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen was one of the featured speakers during UMBC’s 8th Annual Earth Day Symposium (EDS 2024). Supported by sponsorship from the UMBC Department of Physics and the Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II, the symposium serves as a platform for local Earth science research, fostering collaboration among UMBC and GESTAR-II researchers, graduate students, and other Earth science professionals. This year's symposium marked the culmination of a month-long series of activities, a collaborative effort between UMBC, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). EDS 2024 featured five talks, a panel discussion focusing on the Role of PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and Ocean Ecosystem) mission in Monitoring Planetary Health, a nature walk, and a poster session highlighting graduate and undergraduate student research.