SHREVEPORT – LSUS is a key partner in hosting the 28th International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment, a free virtual conference that begins today and runs through Saturday.

The free event, which can be viewed on  www.ieaonline.org, will feature multiple LSUS faculty presenting as part of a star-studded lineup.

The theme is climate change and the coast. LSUS is co-hosting with the Interdisciplinary Environmental Association and The Shreveport Aquarium.

LSUS faculty presenters include Dr. Heather Carpenter (ABC’s of Grant Writing on Thursday at 10 a.m.), Dr. Peter Siska (GIS Workshop for Environmental Research and Climate Change on Thursday at 11 a.m.), LSUS public health student Lori Zeringue Crow (Mitigation of Anthropogenic Effects on Zoosnoses on Thursday at 5 p.m.), and LSUS biological sciences student Jackson Wheat (Description of the Phanaeus vindex Exoskeleton Microstructure on Saturday at 7 p.m.).

Siska will be presenting on a second topic Friday at 9 a.m. (Evaluating Changes in Ecosystem Dynamics in Louisiana’s Coastal Regions).

Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Rush, who traveled to an Antarctic glacier as part of a research team, will speak about her experience Friday at 11 a.m. Rush authored “The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth. 

In 2019, Rush joined 57 scientists and crew onboard a research icebreaker for months headed for Thwaites Glacier. The goal was to learn as much as possible about this mysterious place, never before visited by humans, and believed to be both rapidly deteriorating and capable of making a catastrophic impact on global sea-level rise this century.

Other keynote speakers include Dr. Clinton Willson (Interim Dean of the LSU College of the Coast & Environment), Dr. Margaret Miller (Research Director for SECORE International) and Dr. Pierre Goovaerts (Chief Scientist at BioMedware Inc.).

For a complete itinerary and registration link, visit www.ieaonline.org