The NYMSC inaugural meeting was held at Stony Brook University on September 19, 2008. Representatives from 26 New York colleges, universities, and degree-granting institutions with expertise and interest in marine and/or coastal science founded a collective association that will be the voice for the marine science community and contribute through research and education to reshaping the state’s policies for stewardship of aquatic environments. Over 130 faculty and students with an interest in marine science attended the meeting.
Plenary talks by Donald F. Boesch, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and Carl Safina, President of the Blue Ocean Institute, were followed by a poster session that featured presentations on marine science research and institutions. There were many student posters and the co-winners of the Best Student Poster Award were Anne Cooper Ellefson from The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University and Sara Petrochic from LIU.