Nobel Prize Winner to Speak About Climate Change 

The University of Guam will be hosting the 6th Regional Island Sustainability Conference on April 15 and 16 at the Hyatt Regency Guam. The conference theme this year is “Building Resilient Island Communities.” The conference features Nobel Peace Prize winner Virginia Burkett as a keynote speaker.

The two-day conference starts at 8 a.m. Wednesday, April 15. Burkett will be speaking at 9 a.m.

"We are focusing on addressing the issues faced by island communities in the effort to become independently sustainable," UOG President Dr. Robert A. Underwood said. "UOG continues to work on these issues through research and experimentation. We hope this conference will connect that work with students, community members and visionaries to give us forward momentum in dealing with climate change."

Pre-Conference activities take place on April 13 and 14 and include the Pacific Island Climate Change Advisory Committee meeting, the American Waterworks Association Western Pacific Region Water and Wastewater Conference and the Coral Reef Symposium. Post-Conference activities feature a site visit to the Northern Guam Lens on Friday, April 16.

Registration for the conference is available online at www.uog.edu/cis. For more information, contact Elvie Tyler at (671) 735-2600 or email elvie.tyler8@gmail.com. 

About the Keynote Speaker
Virginia Burkett is the Chief Scientist for Climate and Land Use Change at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). She was formerly the Chief of the Forest Ecology Branch at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, LA. She has published many papers about global change and low-lying coastal areas. She also served as a Lead Author of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2001, 2007 and 2014 reports. The IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 along with Al Gore Jr. for their work to help educate people about climate change and measures needed to counteract such change.