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General Information

All Brown Bag Seminars (unless otherwise noted) are held from 12:00pm - 1 p.m. in the NOAA Central Library, 2nd Floor, SSMC#3, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring.

For remote access via webinar (unless specified otherwise below), please fill out the registration form a few minutes before the meeting is scheduled to begin. The Meeting Number is 742656968; the Passcode is brownbag. For audio in the US and Canada, dial 866-833-7307. The participant passcode is 8986360.

Contact Albert (Skip) Theberge (301-713-2600 ext. 115), Mary Lou Cumberpatch (301-713-2600 ext. 140) or Chris Belter (301-713-2600 ext. 155) for further information or to set up a Brown Bag.

Archived Seminars

A list of previous Brown Bag Seminars and their accompanying Powerpoint presentations, when available, can be found on the Archive Brown Bags page.

Upcoming Seminars

Evaluation Planning, Logic Models and Program Design

Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 12:00pm EST

Presentation Slides (pdf format)

Speakers: Sacheen Tavares-Leighton, Evaluation and Training Specialist, Coastal Services Center; and John Baek, Education Evaluator, Office of Education

Abstract: In this brown bag, Sacheen Tavares-Leighton and John Baek describe how evaluation planning processes connect to logic models and help inform program design. They will provide an example to illustrate the different uses of logic models during different phases of the evaluation planning processes and how that can inform program design.

Note: This seminar is sponsored by the NOAA Evaluation Committee

Remote access via webinar will be available. See the General Information section above for details.

NOAA's 5 Year Research and Development Plan: Providing input and a path forward

Date: Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 12:00pm EST

Speakers: Bob Detrick, Assistant Administrator of OAR, and Shelby Walker, OAR Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation

Abstract: NOAA is America’s oldest science agency and our reach extends from the surface of the sun to the bottom of the sea. The NOAA Research and Development (R&D) enterprise provides the foundation to provide the public the valuable information and products NOAA creates.

The NOAA 5-Year R&D Plan will publicly present NOAA’s R&D priorities for 2013 – 2017 and help articulate and guide future R&D at NOAA. The current draft of the Plan has been developed as a cross Line Office initiative led by the NOAA Research Council. The foundation of the current plan is NOAA’s internal planning efforts under the Next Generation Strategic Plan and Strategy Execution and Evaluation Process. Other strategic documents, including NOAA’s Science Challenge Workshops, have enhanced the current draft.

To help create a useful and forward thinking plan, NOAA employees and affiliates are encouraged to provide input. Primary audiences for this plan include NOAA leadership and employees, NOAA stakeholders and partners, and Congress. The plan will be revised based on comments received from internal NOAA review and will be released for public comment in Spring 2013 – which is another opportunity to provide input into the plan.

Remote access via webinar will be available. See the General Information section above for details.

Factors affecting the preservation or alteration of human remains, clothing or metals on the RMS Titanic and H.L Hunley

Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 12:00pm EST

Speaker: Paul Mardikian, Senior Conservator H.L. Hunley Project and Radiation Safety Officer, Clemson University

Abstract: This presentation will discuss how the macro and micro burial environments of a shipwreck can drastically affect the preservation or alteration of organic and inorganic materials. The impact of depth, salinity, temperature, oxygen, as well as other biological factors on these materials will be reviewed and their interaction with site formation processes identified. In this presentation, conservator Paul Mardikian will examine two shipwrecks, that of the RMS Titanic and the H.L Hunley, the latter a Civil War proto-submarine that sank off the coast of Charleston in 1864 with 8 crewmembers on board, and consider what we can learn from these two case studies.

Please note: Due to the senstive nature of the material being shown, remote access to this seminar will be restricted to NOAA staff only. Visual materials will not be transmitted via webinar; remote access for NOAA staff will be restricted to the audio portion. To receive the call-in telephone number and passcode, please register for this seminar in advance.

Brown Bag Seminar

Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 12:00pm EST

Speaker: Sharon Moen, University of Minnesota Sea Grant

Abstract: TBD

Remote access via webinar will be available. See the General Information section above for details.

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals

Date: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 12:00pm EDT

Speaker: Shannon Dionne, NOAA Office of General Council, Cheri McCarty, and Nina Young, NMFS Office of the Assistant Administrator

Abstract: TBD

Note: This seminar is sponsored by the International Section of the NOAA General Counsel Office.

Remote access via webinar will be available. See the General Information section above for details.

The Ocean Project: Updates and Major Findings

Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 12:00pm EDT

Speaker: William Mott, Executive Director, The Ocean Project; and Douglas Meyer, Bernuth and Williamson

Abstract: An update on the major findings from The Ocean Project's ongoing public opinion and strategic communications research initiative, America and the Ocean, including how those findings have been distributed and are now being applied, especially by zoos, aquariums and museums in experimental efforts aimed at inspiring visitors to do more to help conserve the ocean.

Remote access via webinar will be available. See the General Information section above for details.

Additional seminars are scheduled through the OneNOAA Science Discussion Seminar Series