March 14, 2007 — Three Danish scientists involved in a major research expedition with UVI faculty will present scientific seminars this Friday at the University of the Virgin Islands.
The seminars, concentrating on the Galathea III expedition, plate tectonics, and fluorescent proteins in the oceans, will begin at 1 p.m. and will be videoconferenced between Chase Auditorium on the St. Thomas campus and the Evans Center Theater on the St. Croix campus.
Danish scientists and university professors Finn Surlyk, Peter Roepstorff and Holger Lykke-Andersen will present their seminars at UVI while visiting the territory as part of a major research expedition that began last August and will continue through April 2007. Called Galathea III, the expedition consists of 71 scientific experiments pertaining to oceanographic, ecological, geological and other areas of interest.
The last expedition of this magnitude was called Galathea II and took place more than 50 years ago.
Surlyk, a geology professor at the University of Copenhagen, has received a number of awards and is an author of more than 150 scientific papers. On Friday he will present a seminar entitled, “The Galathea III Expedition.”
Roepstorff, a professor of protein chemistry at South Danish University in Denmark, will lecture on “Fluorescent proteins, light show in the sea and tool in biological research.” Lykke-Andersen, an associate professor in the Department of Geophysics at the University of Arhus in Denmark, will speak on the plate tectonic background of the Virgin Islands and seismic data in the V.I. basin.
Several UVI scientists and officials are working with the Danish scientists and Galathea III expedition leaders to facilitate some of the research and to share educational opportunities. The V.I. Environmental Resource Station (VIERS) will serve as base camp for a number of Galathea III researchers working in the waters near St. John.
One project in Galathea III is called WINMARGIN (West Indies Marine Geoscience Investigations), whose goal is to add to the understanding of global climate by uncovering clues about climate change, such as evidence of past hurricanes.
UVI's involvement started in 2003 and was formalized by a memorandum of understanding signed between UVI’s president and the rector of the University of Copenhagen in 2004.
For further information about the Charter Day seminars or the Galathea III expedition, please contact Adam Parr in the UVI Division of Science and Mathematics at 693-1333.
