for college instructors of the region.
According to Steven Victor, Head of PICRC Research Department, instructors from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, American Samoa, Common Wealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and PCC have been invited to participate in the workshop.
Coral taxonomy is the science of classifying corals into categories based on shared features.
According to Victor, the workshop will begin next week and will be held at the PIRCRC. Moreover, Dr. Robert van Woesik, a long time friend of PICRC and an expert in coral taxonomy, will conduct the workshop.
Dr. van Woesik has worked on the coral reefs of the Pacific – inclusive of Palau – Indian, and Atlantic Oceans since 1982, and has written more than 100 scholarly research articles on coral reefs. His area of expertise is in the population and community ecology of scleractinian corals. Van Woesik is the Environmental Editor of the international journal Coral Reefs, and is the Recording Secretary of the International Society for Reef Studies (ISRS). Dr. Woesik is a professor of the Department of Biological Studies at the Florida Institute of Technology.
Victor said that during the workshop with Dr. Woesik, the instructors will learn to identify and classify corals according to their genus and species.
“The workshop is designed to help college instructors hone their skills as well as acquaint them with new developments in the science,” he added, “and to establish networks through which future collaborative work and studies could evolve.”
Though the workshop is for instructors, Victor further added, participation of PCC students is expected and welcomed.
