Events

Professor Williamson will introduce North Atlantic Right Whales including their natural history, conservation status and current research. The effects of climate change on this species will also be discussed.

Associate Professor J. Michael Williamson has been active in education and research for over 45 years. He founded the NSF funded WhaleNet in 1993 to excite students about math, science, the environment, and technology (STEM). WhaleNet was invited to exhibit in Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and in the US Pavilion at the World Expo in Lisbon, Portugal. He is also Vice-president of the Mingan Island Cetacean Study, which conducts the longest continuous research program on blue whales in the world (since 1979). Williamson was an Associate Professor of Science at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts 1988-2008, and is a Scientist in Residence at St. Mary’s Anglican Girls School in Perth, Western Australia where he teaches and advises on marine science education and research methodology (2000-Present). He was also a pioneer in Massachusetts whale research as the founder and director of the Pelagic Systems Research & Massachusetts Whale Watch which began researching whales in the Gulf of Maine in 1976.

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