The conference was attended by oil spill science experts from around the world, including a large contingent of Canadian academic researchers funded by the Initiative. NOAA was well represented with multiple attendees (in person and virtual), presentations, and engagement in numerous projects. 

OR&R received funding to lead several projects that enhance the nationally used Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique, advance our ADIOS oil database and library, and support a large collaboration, administered by the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC), among spill response and assessment operators to test and advance our ability to characterize oil slicks. 

Oceanographer Chris Barker from OR&R’s Emergency Response Division presented on recent work done to improve oil weathering models for biodegradation, evaporation, and physical properties, which will be used in a future version of the oil trajectory and weathering model GNOME. Dalina Thrift-Viveros, a chemist in the division, gave an update on initiative-funded work to develop a reference document on analytical methods used to measure physical and chemical properties of oil. 

OR&R is proud to note that two students from the University of New Hampshire who are part of the CRRC (Tori Sweet and Jess Manning) received one of the “best student presentation” awards for their work on oil/ice modeling, highlighting the excellence of our next generation of oil spill experts.