4-18-08

Media Release

Rutgers Oceanographer to Deliver Byrne Lecture at OSU

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A prominent oceanographer from Rutgers University, who has been honored for his work in Antarctica, will deliver the annual John Byrne Lecture at Oregon State University on Monday, April 28, where he will outline the impacts of climate change on ocean food webs.

Oscar Schofield’s lecture, “Hot Days in the Southern Ocean: Climate-Induced Migration of Antarctic Food Webs,” begins at 7 p.m. in the C&E Auditorium of LaSells Stewart Center. It is free and open to the public.

Schofield is a professor in the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies at Rutgers. He and a colleague there recently were awarded the Technology Collaboration Award by the Naval Research Lab at the Stennis Space Center for their work in coastal observing.

He also was honored by the U.S. Navy with the Antarctic Service Medal for his research.

Schofield, who is an aquatic biologist and optics specialist, has been investigating how climate change directly and indirectly affects the food web in the Southern Ocean.

The John Byrne Lecture Series, named for former OSU president and NOAA administrator John V. Byrne, presents public lectures on subjects of broad topical interest in marine and atmospheric sciences, particularly on themes of resources, policy and communicating science to the public.

The series is sponsored by the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at OSU.