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The Role of Polar Regions in Earth’s Changing Climate System
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Dr. Kathleen Gorski
Kathleen Gorski is an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the National
Science Foundation in the Office of Polar Programs. Describing herself as an “industrial
escapee”, her path to the classroom began at Western New England College, where
she earned her B.S. in chemistry and education. After doing biochemical research
at the Joslin Diabetes Foundation, she attended the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, where she earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry.
Although Kathy spent a great deal of time in instructional activities, helping to
develop the University’s chemistry multimedia resource room including online assessments
and working with the School of Engineering to strengthen their minority outreach
programs, she left graduate school to work in the instrumentation industry. In 1998,
she returned to her first love and has been teaching middle school science since.
Kathy has helped found The Nativity School of Worcester, a middle school for boys
living in the city’s vulnerable neighborhoods. As Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr.
Gorski created and deepened the entire school curriculum and established inquiry-based
programs in math and science. She wants her students to be eager to learn new things,
and the best way to make them eager is to truly engage them in the material. She
doesn't lecture very often. "Science is a verb," Dr. Gorski says. In addition to
teaching science and technology classes, she also directs the school's summer camps,
acts as librarian, administers the school's technology, and organizes professional
development for the faculty.
Kathy is excited to bring her skills and talents to Washington DC to help advance
science education in this country. She is an active member of many professional
organizations, and has many publications to her name, both chemical and educational.
Dr. Doug Williams
Douglas F. Williams, aka "Dr Doug", Carolina Trustee Professor of Marine and Geological
Sciences and former Associate Dean of the South Carolina Honors College at the University
of South Carolina, has been active in the research, teaching and administrative
affairs of the University since 1977. At the Honors College Dr Doug was instrumental
in developing Research-Based Learning (RBL) and Learning Through Experiential Outreach
(LEO), two approaches to enhancing the undergraduate learning experience by engaging
both major and non-science majors in authentic research and scholarship. In May
2006, Dr Doug joined the staff of the EdVenture Children's Museum as its first Scientist-in-Residence
where he is involved in professional development programming for teachers, and museum
staff training.
Dr Doug is an oceanographer who received his bachelor's degree in geology-biology
from Brown University and his PhD in oceanography from the Graduate School of Oceanography
of the University of Rhode Island. Dr Doug's research involves using marine and
lake sediments to reconstruct the history of the earth's climate. In 1989 he organized
the Baikal Drilling Project (BDP), a decade-long Russian-American-Japanese project
to study the history of the world's deepest and oldest lake, Lake Baikal. As part
of his professional research, Dr Doug has taken over 50 undergraduates on experiential
learning trips around the world and the nation. In the summer of 2003, Dr Doug took
eight USC students to the Laptev Sea of the Russian Arctic via a 3,700 km journey
through the heart of Siberia on the Lena River, one of the world's longest and mightiest
rivers. In 2004 Dr Doug received a U.S. National Science Foundation grant to create
Go Polar! Cool Science in the Arctic at EdVenture, an informal science education
program about Arctic and Global Change research for children and families.
Dr Doug has published nearly 200 scientific papers, received numerous research grants
from the U.S. National Science Foundation, and won awards at USC for outstanding
teaching and mentoring of undergraduates.
For more information contact webseminars@nsta.org
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Underwritten in part by NSF, NASA, and NOAA.
