Early Career Scientist Participation Grant for the 2016 Gordon Conference Workshop on Natural Gas Hydrates Entitled: From the Interface to Observatories

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This award is to facilitate the participation of early career scientists and students in the week-long 4th Gordon Research Conference on Natural Gas Hydrate Systems being held in Galveston, Texas February 28-March 4, 2016. The meeting is unique in that it fosters and spawns new directions in fundamental gas hydrates research, by providing a common forum for scientists from academe and industry, engineers, and students in fields and sectors that commonly do not interact. The meeting focuses on linking the latest advances on our understanding of gas hydrate science, at the most fundamental level, with current research problems of scientific, economic and societal relevance. The workshop is designed to provide valuable insights to researchers and interested parties in the private sector who are working on a gamut of gas hydrate issues encompassing: gas transport in pipelines, occurrence in sediments and the water column, impacts on geo-mechanics and sediment-hydrate interaction, sensor development and monitoring strategies, applications and challenges in cabled observatories, numerical simulations of reservoirs, and field programs looking at gas hydrate formation, accumulation and destabilization in the Arctic; Gulf of Mexico; North Atlantic; eastern and western Pacific; and Indian Oceans. Broader impacts of the work include encouragement and mentoring of early career scientists by a panel of gas hydrate experts who will not only enhance the early career participants' experience in the meeting, but will also provide mentoring and advice on scientific careers in a wide range of venues in the private sector and in academic settings. Workshop conveners will strive to select a mixture of gender, ages and nationalities among the presenters and discussion leaders. An emphasis in the discussions will be the operation and potential scientific issues related to the new NSF-funded Ocean Observing Initiative (OOI) and its node on Hydrate Ridge, offshore Oregon, to build knowledge and utilization of that new major scientific research facility.