Horton to Give Marine Science Lecture at Southern Miss Gulf Coast
Thu, 04/03/2014 - 02:23pm | By: Charmaine Williams Schmermund
Dr. Benjamin P. Horton, professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University, will present “Is Sea-Level Rising?” on Monday, April 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the Fleming Education Center auditorium at The University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach.
The event, sponsored by the university's Department of Marine Science and the Center for Gulf Studies, is a public lecture as part of the department's annual “Denis and Jean Wiesenburg Distinguished Lecture in Ocean Science.”
Horton, a 2013 Geological Society of America Fellow, studies the geologic record of sea-level changes, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, and coastal evolution. These reconstructions are vital towards putting the historic record into a long-term, natural context, as well as shedding light on the future of our planet. He will describe the use of geological proxies to reconstruct Common Era relative sea-level variability along the U.S. Atlantic coast.
Horton earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors in geography from the University of Liverpool, followed by a doctor of philosophy in geography from the University of Durham. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.
His honors include a Menzies Australian Bicentennial Award, the Higher Education Funding Council for England Excellence in teaching, a Linnean Society Award, the Geological Society of America's W. Storrs Cole Memorial Research Award for contributions to micropaleontology, a Medal for Research Excellence by the Commanding General of the North Atlantic Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and is a Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to the presentation at the Gulf Park campus, Horton will present, “How Sensitive was Sea Level to Climate Variability during the Common Era?” at 11 a.m. on April 14 at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center.
The Distinguished Lecture in Ocean Science series is dedicated to Dr. Denis Wiesenburg, provost at Southern Miss, and his wife, Jean Wiesenburg. As past chair of the Department of Marine Science, Wiesenburg continues to be active in the pursuit of excellence in marine science at Southern Miss and across the nation. His contributions to Southern Miss in the field of oceanography have strengthened and built upon the foundation of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning designation of Southern Miss as the Center of Excellence in Marine Science for the State of Mississippi.
For more information, contact the Southern Miss Department Marine Science at 228.688.3177.