Politics Before Science? What The Oil Spill Commission Has Revealed

August 30, 2010: Surprising revelations about agencies that were not consulted prior to the President’s March 2010 expansion of offshore oil drilling. Have the microbes in the Gulf of Mexico consumed the unseen oil? One study says “yes,” a second, “no.”  Or is that what they say at all? Our special guest is Nicolas Drayton, EPSCoR Coordinator in the U.S. Virgin Islands with inspirational ideas and dedication to get the next generation interested and engaged in science.

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This Week’s Guest: Nicolas Drayton

This week’s guest: Nicolas Drayton, Virgin Islands Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)

Nicolas Drayton is program coordinator for VI EPSCoR, the Virgin Islands Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a territorial program housed at UVI, which builds the territory’s capacity for scientific research and education. As program coordinator Nick facilitates VI EPSCoR incubator grants for start-up research, from assisting with the selection of proposals through the tracking of funds. He also works closely on the major VI EPSCoR initiative of strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics in kindergarten through 12th grade in the territory through collaborations with the Virgin Islands Education Department and UVI’s departments of Education and Science and Mathematics.

Drayton holds a Master of Science degree in coastal biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Over his career he has been involved in a wide range of marine conservation-related roles, including training, advocacy, planning, management and administration of Caribbean marine parks and protected areas. Before joining UVI, he was the Ocean Conservancy’s Caribbean Ecosystems program director where his main duty was to ?promote best management practices for coral reefs and marine parks and protected areas.”? Nick was one of the key players in the establishment of the East End Marine Park on St. Croix

VI EPSCoR is funded by a five-year $11.5 million Research Infrastructure Improvement grant from the National Science Foundation. The U.S. Virgin Islands received its first VI EPSCoR grant in 2004, making the territory the smallest jurisdiction to have ever received such an award and UVI the only Historically Black University ever awarded.

Additional information:

Virgin Islands Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI-EPSCoR)

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