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2 - Meet the 3 hosts
6 Plays1 year ago
Welcome back to the Going Coastal Podcast for students and new professionals. In this special launch episode, get to know our dynamic hosts Jon Miller, Marissa Torres, and Deb Fernandes.
Join us as we dive into who they are, their backgrounds in the coastal field, and what drives their passion for coastal preservation. Discover the most fascinating places their work has taken them and learn what exciting changes and continuities you can expect from the podcast moving forward.
We'll discuss the format of our monthly episodes, which will include segments on professional development, student research spotlights, and coastal policy updates. With a new email (podcastgoingcoastal@gmail.com) and a more inclusive approach towards other student and professional coastal organizations, we’re also exploring sponsorship possibilities to bring you even more content.
Tune in, get involved, and let us know what you want to hear next on the Going Coastal Podcast!
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Transcript
Welcome and Relaunch Announcement
00:00:05
Speaker
Oh, welcome back to the Going Coastal podcast, the podcast of the Students and New Professionals chapter of the American Shore Beach Preservation Association, hosted by none other than me, Marissa Torres. And me, John Miller. And me too, Deb Fernandez. And this time we are produced and hosted by ourselves. Yay. We're doing that thing. We're doing it live.
00:00:32
Speaker
Yes, taking on new responsibilities. This should be fun.
00:00:36
Speaker
You know, a soft, another relaunch of this podcast, but you can always check out our previous episodes in the archive. I think they're still on CoastalNewsToday.com. Yes, they are. Okay. Well, you can still check us out over there for all of our sweet, sweet historical content. But from here on out, we're doing that sweet, sweet new content just for you.
Acknowledgements and Excitement for Independence
00:01:02
Speaker
And before we go on, definitely want to give a shout out to Tyler and folks for producing our first 30 some odd episode, three years worth of going coastal and getting this whole thing kicked off. And without their help in awesome editing and production capabilities, this would not be a thing. So thanks to them. For sure. Um, hats off snaps all around.
00:01:29
Speaker
Cheers. Pour one out for the boys. Tyler Buckingham at ASPN, American Shoreline Podcast Network, and Peter Revella as well. So Tyler was our main producer. Amazing. Wouldn't be where we are today without him, without both of them and the network itself. So
00:01:49
Speaker
We're excited to have this opportunity to kind of break off and start venturing out on our own, like the young ducklings leaving the nest, learning how to fly.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of things would be similar, but there's also going to be some new things. So it's exciting to have opportunities to continue to do what I think Marissa and I and Deb more recently have kind of learned to really enjoy doing in these podcasts and learn to do some new stuff in the production side. But look forward to incorporating some of the old content, some of the new content, and kind of moving forward.
Team Dynamics and Tech Challenges
00:02:25
Speaker
Yes, we're super excited.
00:02:29
Speaker
Definitely a producer right now. She is. It's a hard job. We didn't mean to give it to our youngest co-host who knows about technology more than any of us. But that's just kind of how it happened. Yeah, it's OK. It's a lot of fun, honestly. I get to play the old co-host, the technology illiterate one. What do you mean you get to play? You are. Ah.
00:02:58
Speaker
Only what I want to be, right? You tell my students all the time, I can't run that MATLAB anymore. You got to do that. Unless I want to, and then I jump in and I do it. Yeah. When was the last time that you coded? Be honest.
00:03:17
Speaker
probably a couple weeks ago. So I miss it. I like it. I don't like managing things and people necessarily. It's okay. The youngest got you here. That's right. We've got them.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, having two women co-hosts, um, pretty clutch. Not gonna lie, so... I mean, let's be honest, of all the teams that I'm on across what I do at work, if I'm the only female in the room,
00:03:54
Speaker
I'm the one keeping the boys on track. I'm the one keeping the schedule and taking notes and making sure that they do all the things and I'm sure they're very grateful for it. However, it's exhausting. I think we're a pretty good team though. I think we work well. We're a good mix. Yeah, we are. And I think this is why this podcast is going to be great.
00:04:20
Speaker
Are we multi-disciplinary? Or is it multi-inter and then trans? So multi is the bottom tier. I think we're kind of more interdisciplinary. Probably. We're learning each other's things and taking turns and leveraging each other's skill sets and stuff.
00:04:41
Speaker
Sure. Sure. What Marissa said. I feel like I've harped on the need of, of the multi versus inter, intra, inter, and then transdisciplinary teams enough times. You can Google it if you want to learn more. No, I'm good. I'll take your word from me. We believe you, Marissa. Okay,
John Miller's Background and Passion
00:05:03
Speaker
great. Thanks. Well, alrighty. So I guess, um,
00:05:09
Speaker
You know, we'll take this time for our new listeners. If you're just joining us fresh off this on our own ducklings leaving the nest wagon, we're just going to take this time to reintroduce ourselves as your co-hosts and kind of a little bit what this podcast is about and what you might expect from us in some of the months to come.
00:05:31
Speaker
So, John, as the senior advisor here, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? Why should people listen to you? And what are you passionate about? I like how you just called me a senior. You're welcome. Not quite there yet, but
00:05:57
Speaker
But in terms of who I am and what I do, I am a research technically associate professor here at Stevens Institute of Technology, which is a small engineering school in Hoboken, New Jersey, where I have been for the past close to 20 years, believe it or not. Yeah, that's senior.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah. Somewhere along, I had to fill in something the other day, and it had early career faculty, mid-career faculty, and late-career faculty. And somehow or another, I qualified as late-career faculty. So that just means I get to retire soon is the way I look at it. Oh, I like that. That's it. I'll be emeritus at some point soon.
00:06:45
Speaker
But yeah, so I do all things coastal engineering and I teach classes and do research and all of that fun stuff. And kind of as a side perspective to what I do, I also
00:07:00
Speaker
get some funding from New Jersey Sea Grant, so also get to work on communications and outreach and education, which is one of the reasons that I decided that this podcast was a great thing to help promote the coastal field and jobs in coastal and how to succeed in coastal and as it's a very under
00:07:21
Speaker
under advertised, under appreciated field. And everybody that I know that does coastal seems to love it. So trying to broadcast that to people, I think is part of the reason that I signed up to do going coastal. Well, you can't be mad when you're at the beach. No, even the New Jersey beach. I love my New Jersey beaches, by the way.
00:07:45
Speaker
Well, yeah, I'll also take this moment, right? We are not only grateful for ASPN and Tyler for giving us this opportunity to get to this point, but also grateful to our new producer daddy, the New Jersey ski grant, who, because of John's work,
00:08:07
Speaker
in communication with that is supporting our ability to do this thing, at least in part. So thanks.
Deb Fernandez's Introduction and Passion
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's important. Happy to do it. So Deb, who are you? So I'm Deb Fernandez.
00:08:28
Speaker
I'm from overseas. I'm not an American-made. I am from Switzerland and Portugal. I grew up in Switzerland, but my family's from Portugal. So yeah, I am in the coastal field pretty strangely because I grew up in Switzerland and there was absolutely no sea over there, very landlocked. But as a kid, I would always go to Portugal and Portugal, half of its border is literally the sea, the ocean.
00:08:56
Speaker
So I've always loved to go there. And this is how I got the passion to work with beaches and just work in the coastal field. I am at the University of South Alabama right now doing a PhD with Dr. Brett Webb. And yeah, so far so good. I joined the podcast last April. So it's been a year. It's my one year anniversary here at the podcast of going coastal.
Marissa Torres's Work and Identity
00:09:24
Speaker
Happy anniversary. And what about you, Marisa? Who are you? Great question. I've been trying to answer that myself for at least 31 years. And it changes every time. As soon as you think you know who you are, seven years rolls around and you're a different person. So we're constantly getting to learn who we are as people.
00:09:50
Speaker
All that to say, my name is Marissa Torres and I, what am I actually? I've been with the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. There's a lot of acronyms, but
00:10:11
Speaker
It comes down to Krell, Erdik. Krell, you'll hear, Usace, you'll hear me say those a lot in this podcast. Hopefully you guys are already aware of Usace and Erdik. And we do a lot of work with the Coastal and Hydraulics Lab. So CHL, insert acronym soup here. Anyways. Acronymitis. What? Acronymitis. I have acronymitis. Dude.
00:10:37
Speaker
I'm not even kidding when I say that within my first four months of starting this job, seven years ago, almost seven years ago now, so I've been there for six and a half years. Within the first four months, I received a 400 page PDF of the acronyms commonly used in the federal government.
00:11:00
Speaker
Oh my god. Not even kidding. That's funny. Yeah, it's a lot. Do you know all these acronyms now? I don't know. I know the ones that are relevant to my fields and that's all I care about. And then if not, like,
00:11:19
Speaker
Don't be afraid to ask. My social anxiety about stopping someone to clarify something has really diminished because I'm like, OK, I don't know what that alphabet soup you just said was. Can you explain what is this? What is that? What does this mean? Like in that context, too, because some acronyms mean different things to different people and to different fields. So when in doubt, pause and like.
00:11:41
Speaker
One, as a presenter and a communicator, make sure that you're communicating that for people so that way nobody is not following or so that way they can follow along. And if you're in the audience and you need something clarified in a meeting, in a presentation, maybe towards the end of the presentation, but just kind of clarify, like, what was this acronym? Don't be afraid of that.
00:12:05
Speaker
Things I've learned and I'm sidestepping all these questions. So I'm technically, my title is a research general engineer. Mostly because I'm at Crell, which is the cold regions lab, but I do coastal work. So that's kind of a general term. I think if I were you, I would have just stopped at research general. Research general.
00:12:31
Speaker
That just sounds so freaking cool. Research general. That's so badass. It feels like the rocket general, like the mortgage lender. I'm trying to stay away from that one, I guess.
00:12:50
Speaker
Research engineers usually what I'll just like go by in general. No pun intended. But yeah, that's that's what I do. What do I do in the coastal fields? Great question. I sit behind a computer most of the time, but I do get to travel a lot. I do computer based
00:13:13
Speaker
like numerical simulations of waves in the nearshore.
Fieldwork vs Desk Jobs
00:13:18
Speaker
So I work a lot with numerical models. I've done some tidal analysis. So I'm kind of working on
00:13:26
Speaker
How do we better represent these, more recently, especially with the push towards resilient systems and natural and nature-based features or nature-based solutions, how do we represent those in our numerical wave models accurately so we can run probabilistic simulations, so we can understand the expected response over time with, are these things
00:13:54
Speaker
you know, insert return on investment here on building these things. Are they doing the job that we need them to when the time comes? Or like, how can we design them better? What is optimal configurations kind of thing? So that's where I'm moving towards in that respect. Otherwise, I just kind of do a lot of ad hoc things, coding, making GUIs, a lot of presentations.
00:14:24
Speaker
Presentations, answering emails and presentations. And give a great one. Last presentation that you did at ASBPA National Conference was a hit. The room was now big enough for everyone to listen to Marisa, honestly.
00:14:40
Speaker
And I think it's only because I said it to everybody that, yeah, I'm the last presentation on the last day. I don't expect anybody to be there totally fine. I wasn't worried about it. Why was the room full? Why was the room overflowing? I didn't ask for this. You're so cool. Your work is so cool. Oh my gosh, I panicked. But we did it.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah, no presentation for me this year at ASBPA, mostly because I miss the abstract deadline. I'll do a poster. It always sneaks up on me. They're just so early. And I'm like, I've barely gotten work done enough to present and write an abstract on anything. We just submitted an abstract for, I think it was ASCE ports conference, which is next June in Providence.
00:15:37
Speaker
What do you mean next June? Next June. I thought it was, it's this June. Is it this June? I thought it was next June. It's in like a month. Oh, I thought it was next June. I thought it was 2025. No. And it's, yeah, it's, no, it's back in. Well, that makes me feel better about, my student made the deadline. So that's all that I care about. Wait, is it? I'm telling you. We're doing this live. Like our listeners need to know. Uh, uh,
00:16:08
Speaker
Who can Google the fastest? I think it's 2020. I thought it was. See, now that's the reaction. Oh, it is 25. And see, because it was so early, the deadline, I was so confused. Because I was like, wait a second, a May deadline for a June conference or a March deadline for a June conference isn't enough time. But then I was like, no, wait a second. It's a full year and it's like 18 months in advance.
00:16:35
Speaker
That's like too far. So like, who knows? Like, I don't, I can't figure out what I'm doing next week, let alone, you know, next summer. What am I doing tomorrow? I don't know.
Surfing Tales and Coastal Passion
00:16:49
Speaker
Well, I do, but, um, yeah. So for, for our new or returning listeners, check out ASCE Copri coming in live, coming in hot.
00:17:01
Speaker
next June in back in Providence, Rhode Island. Can't submit abstracts, but you can still go. Yeah. That's the best. Those are the best conferences when you don't have to present. You just get to show up, hang out with cool people.
00:17:22
Speaker
I mean, I got to go to ASCE ports last year. I guess they're bi-annual. Cause I went in September, 2023 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ah, see that's, I, where did I go wrong? I should have submitted there. Well, you just, you need to be an instructor for an eight hour short course on Fun Wave. Eight hours, Fun Wave Hawaii. I think that's worth it. Yeah. Cause that was my only obligation. Oh, even better. Even better.
00:17:52
Speaker
Hawaii was great, guys. I took a surfing class. I stood up once, but I did. Nice. You surf in Jersey? We can. Do I? No. I've tried and I've failed miserably. See, this is where the old man comes into play, right? My lack of
00:18:19
Speaker
My lack of, you know what? I like to think I would be able to stand up if I could paddle. The paddling part to me is that I somehow can't balance myself on my stomach. Standing up, no problem. Were you barrel-chested? I don't know, apparently. Sadly, it was large. And I still was having trouble, so.
00:18:48
Speaker
Ah, I overcorrect. I have a tendency to overcorrect, right? So you feel a little off balance in one direction and you put more pressure in the other direction and next thing you know, you're just all off.
00:18:58
Speaker
All right, so one wheels are not for you. Yeah, no. Segways, none of that technology. I'm telling you, when I'm upright, no problem. When I'm laying down, that's an issue. All right, so Dev, growing up in Portugal, you surf? Not growing up. But yes, you can surf all year long in Portugal. It's absolutely amazing. But the first time I surfed was when
00:19:26
Speaker
I lived in Australia for a year with the sharks the sharks and the jellyfish and everything that everything bad hurts yes there are sharks but i mean it's okay you get used to the danger keep you alive
00:19:44
Speaker
You get used to it. You do. Sometimes you're on the beach and there's like the shark alarm going off and everyone needs to get out of the water and you just wait for the shark to go away and then you can go back into water. And it's completely normal. Yeah. Martha's Vineyard needed that in the 1990s. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:04
Speaker
Have you have you like watched some of those surfing competitions in Portugal? No, I've never watched like the big wave ones because I mean there was COVID and I was living there so. So is that why you're passionate about coastal? Tell me. Me? No. Okay, funny story. When I was a kid with my dad, like on Sundays we would watch documentaries so like the first documentaries were like
00:20:31
Speaker
about motorcycles and cars and then in the afternoon it was about like people going at sea and like just exploring like place and they were showing us their research it was a french documentary and uh i used to watch this with my dad and i was like i want to be them i want to be that person on that boat that's going to be my job and they were like sure whatever they're like you're dreaming we're in switzerland uh but somehow i managed
00:20:58
Speaker
And here you are. Oh my gosh, that's exciting. John, in your 20 year career, plus all of your education, you know, thinking way back, you know, way back. I don't know. My memory doesn't go back that far. Why are you passionate about the coastal field? What makes you passionate about? Well, I guess maybe not why, but like, what are you passionate about?
00:21:23
Speaker
For me, it grows similar in terms of growing up going to the beach. That was my favorite vacation spot. I used to love taking walks on the beach early in the morning before anybody else was awake and just looking out at the ocean and the waves and appreciating how different the coast was every year when we would come back and wondering why does it look different this year than last year.
00:21:48
Speaker
all of those things. And when I was growing up, there was a couple of pretty bad coastal storms here in New Jersey that created damage and destruction. And it was kind of like, whoa, it's crazy to see these really big waves and what causes it. And, you know, how do we potentially stop that damage from occurring in the future? And then I
00:22:13
Speaker
became an engineer. And then when I realized that you could combine engineering with studying the ocean and the beaches and all that cool stuff, it was like, hey, this is exactly what I want to do. Which again, I didn't even know that I could do as a career when I was growing up. And so
00:22:32
Speaker
even today, you know, as much social media and all that that's out there, kids still don't know that there's a career in coastal engineering or oceanography or whatever it is.
Fascination with Natural Phenomena and Modeling
00:22:42
Speaker
So that's, you know, part of what makes me passionate about being a coastal engineer, but also passionate about doing things like hosting, going coastal and making sure people are aware. And so we get the brightest minds going into what we do, which is kind of cool.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah man, preach, we gotta save something, right? What am I passionate about? And again, that is something that I feel that I'm still searching for, but what made me interested in coastal, it was kind of by happenstance, I ended up in coastal, I have always loved the ocean.
00:23:26
Speaker
That's usually, I feel like that's all of our common denominator is loving the ocean in some way, shape or form. Growing up getting to go to the beach in Musquamiket, Rhode Island, Southern Shore, I don't know, rooting for Rhode Island, my favorite little state, just something about it. And then I think it was after Sandy watching, I just went back to that same beach that I grew up
00:23:53
Speaker
going to. And by this time, I was already well into my ocean engineering undergraduate. Just that destruction that I saw, it's like I just watched half of my beach disappear, like what I usually went towards. And I've always been very interested in hurricanes and understanding their impacts and being able to model that kind of stuff. I thought I was going to do ocean renewable energy. I thought that was, yeah, I want to do marine renewable energy.
00:24:20
Speaker
offshore wind turbines, yeah. And then I had to, I simulated a hurricane for the first time. I was like, this is so cool. Like, I just made that thing on the computer. I told the computer to do that and it did it. And there it is. Like, it's just, it was just like, wow, it's amazing like what our computational resources are able to do and what our
00:24:47
Speaker
you know big brains behind the scenes with these equations and translating that into computer talk and making that efficient and fast and that's what we rely on now like if that were to go down here we are back into what playing telephone and like the makings of a fun wave modeler well
00:25:11
Speaker
It's like, yeah, hurricanes, I'm passionate about hurricanes, I'd say. And I know that they cause a lot of devastation and maybe me being a nerd about it and getting excited about hurricanes is not
00:25:24
Speaker
not it's like it's like people who are into true crime right they're not excited that death happened but they get excited by it for whatever reason um everybody has their own thing so same thing hurricanes i know cause a lot of destruction and death and they bring sadness upon communities but i mean it's it's something about the
00:25:48
Speaker
There's something about the power of nature and whether it's earthquakes or tornadoes or thunderstorms or lightning or like there's just really cool, interesting, amazing natural phenomena that occur. And you don't root for the consequences necessarily, but to try to understand that is amazing.
Complexity of Coastal Resilience
00:26:10
Speaker
It's really cool, really cool stuff.
00:26:13
Speaker
Weather is so neat. This earth is so neat. And for me, I think it's like the cool part is
00:26:24
Speaker
when you watch it and it seems so abstract and so complicated and so sort of out of the blue, but then when you can, for me, when this is the, I'm gonna geek out now, right? So then when the engineer or physicist can apply these physical concepts and mathematical equations and like you said, like when you apply it and you run that model and oh my God,
00:26:48
Speaker
It works and it looks like what actually is happening and you're like, oh my, there's a, there's a chance that we can explain this or help explain it and understand it and predict it and forecast it. And then that's just really amazing and cool. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. That's big nerd energy. Little scientists and engineers trying to help and predict and see the future.
00:27:20
Speaker
All right, we don't have to go into this We don't have to go down this rabbit hole But what what are your thoughts on like coastal resilience and like the amount of money and effort and resources that we're putting into Heart like trying to protect our coastlines Maybe we're not gonna get into this right now Yeah, no, I think it's it's
00:27:49
Speaker
I think I'm going to get into it for a second, only because I think it's like any other issue. When you oversimplify issues, the argument is very complex and nuanced, and it involves engineering and science and social aspects and economic aspects. And for me, that's where people sometimes
00:28:17
Speaker
don't necessarily want to appreciate all of those complex dynamics that are involved. I don't think it's something that you can consider lightly. I think every place is different, every coastline is different, every people is different, every population is different.
00:28:47
Speaker
I think it's a complicated issue. And I think that it requires study, it requires models, it requires people operating across disciplines, right, engineers, biologists, ecologists, social scientists, politicians, economists, right, in order to fully appreciate kind of all of the things that go into developing an understanding of an area's vulnerability and
00:29:16
Speaker
what we can do, what we should do in order to help improve resilience in that area. So that's to me, I think my biggest pet peeve is not people that argue we should retreat, people that argue we should just build walls everywhere. My biggest pet peeve is when people don't consider the complexity of the issue and they oversimplify to suit a narrative.
Podcast Focus and Future Plans
00:29:37
Speaker
And that goes well beyond coastal engineering, but that's just big picture. I hate it when people
00:29:47
Speaker
I hate it when smart people sometimes play dumb to oversimplify things to create a narrative that they want to fit. And that happens way too often. I'm preaching, I'm sorry.
00:29:59
Speaker
That's fine because I asked the question and I wanted to see where we were at. I feel like this should be its own episode because that really succinctly creates the nexus of our three episode topics that we like to do on this show, which is combining that science with coastal policy and policy in general. And a lot of those discussions, unfortunately, a lot of our work has become
00:30:25
Speaker
polarizing has become politicized in recent culture and that's something that does trickle down to us and how we try to frame our work and continue to move forward. So that's a topic that we like to address.
00:30:42
Speaker
in some of our rotating episodes, so Coastal Policy Focus, and bringing in those new ideas, new sciences with our Student Research Spotlight series. We like to bring on some even undergrads, graduate students, masters, PhD, postdocs, recent graduates that would like to talk about their research. We love to learn about your research and what it is that you're studying, what you enjoy about it, get to know you.
00:31:11
Speaker
And then to help you on that journey, moving from academia to the industry or government or vice versa or steps to go in the right direction. We like to do professional development series or professional development episodes where it's kind of a mix of different topics. So we've done mentoring episodes. What other episodes have we done for professional development?
00:31:38
Speaker
We've talked about interviewing skills, we've talked about what to do at a conference to maximize your exposure at conferences, resume writing, importance of certifications. Yeah, we've kind of been all over the map with, I think we even did something
00:31:57
Speaker
related to working remotely at some point when it's, I think, maybe? I don't know. Anyway, but all of those types of topics are things that we've kind of considered under professional development.
00:32:11
Speaker
with room to grow and ideas and suggestions. What is it that you want help with or for us to bring on an expert in the field or an expert on certain things or just someone who has experience with that and get to know how to do that thing, whether it's a technical skill or a soft skill.
00:32:33
Speaker
So yeah, those are the three main series that we like to rotate through throughout the year. And those will come out monthly. And they should be available wherever you get your podcasts. In theory, on Spotify, Apple, Google, insert other podcast platform here. And it'll still be the three of us rotating. So in this episode, you are graced with all three of us.
00:33:02
Speaker
But on the next one, you'll be graced with just two and a guest or two. And we will kind of rotate in that way. So as we kind of jump back into going coastal, one of the questions that we were tossing around kind of privately off air and figured we could throw it on air is what are the coolest, what is the coolest place that each of us has been to for
00:33:31
Speaker
field research. And I think I know Deb's answer, but let me say it. Yeah, it is. You can say it.
Fieldwork Experiences and Travel Tales
00:33:41
Speaker
Deb's on a very cool project right now in the Caribbean. Yes. So I'm working in the US Virgin Islands and I had the chance to go there last December.
00:33:55
Speaker
And I even had the chance to tour all three islands. So St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. Because it was the first time that I went there, so we had to like survey all the different beaches and environments that we could actually deploy instruments. So yeah, my task for about a week was like,
00:34:19
Speaker
to go to one beach, jump in, snorkel around, look at the seagrass, because I work with the seagrass meadows, and then drive to another spot, jump in the water again, look at the seagrass. And yeah, I loved it. It was literally paradise. Sounds terrible.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah, very hard work. Honestly, this is part of the reason that we're in coastal. We like the beach, we like the ocean, and everywhere that we get to go is usually on the water. I mean, yeah, this is the reason why I left home, so. Had to be good. Nice. What about you, John?
00:35:00
Speaker
Ooh, for me, so there's a two-part answer to the question. I was at a, I think it was the ASPPA conference, and they were interviewing, I think, David Basco, and they asked him what his favorite beach was, just in general, not one that he had done field work at. And I think his answer was the next one.
00:35:17
Speaker
with the idea that, and I loved it because everyone is so different and there's something interesting and cool and unique about every beach that you visit. And I was like, that was, they must've asked him that question in advance. Like you couldn't have thought of that on the spot. But I was like, that's a really cool answer. And it's partially true. It is 100% true. I think it's always interesting when you go to a new place. But that being said, the second part of that answer is having also lived in Australia for a year,
00:35:44
Speaker
I would say either one of two places in Australia, either Byron Bay, where I had the pleasure to do some field work with some researchers from the University of Queensland, or Morton Bay and Straddy up in Queensland. Also very cool places. The field research group there at University of Queensland used to take Christmas
00:36:13
Speaker
Christmas trips, parties slash holiday experiences where it was half work, half pleasure. And we would literally camp out on the beach for several days and just collect field data for days and days. And it was hard work by day and then
00:36:32
Speaker
At night, we would hang out, have a good time, drink beers on the beach. Like it was just really cool, really, really, really cool experience with really cool people. And that's kind of hard to forget.
00:36:43
Speaker
That sounds awesome. Hell yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Look at you guys go. Oh. I don't do field work. Marissa, you better have a good story. Yeah. I don't really do field work because I'm behind a computer. I will say that going to Hawaii was probably the coolest trip that I got to do to teach at ASCE ports conference. I think I mentioned that already.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah, that was the coolest one. So other than that, you know, I've done some other military projects on my job and I got to go to like Yuma, Arizona once and see the U.S.-Mexico border. That was interesting, very desert-like. No ocean to be found, minimal water to be found.
00:37:42
Speaker
So yeah, I kind of like having this job. It gives me some flavor of both, you know? But I do get to go to a lot of conferences and they're usually on the coast, so it's a good time. I'm fine with it. Like ASPPA in Galveston this year. That's right. This August. Right around the corner, sneaking up. Get your poster abstracts in.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, poster abstracts. Don't worry. I know that deadline. It's July. I think it's end of July or mid-July. Yeah, of this year. So I won't miss that. I hope you guys don't miss that. Talking to the listeners here. There's other things too. We'll let you know about them. That's our job now. And it's your job to listen to us. Maybe not a job. I hope it's not a job. Hopefully, yes. Insert. It doesn't pay well, that's for sure.
00:38:30
Speaker
It pays in smiles and giggles and hopefully not grimaces but you know we're all just a bunch of nerds here having fun liking what we do and we like talking about it so thanks for being
Listener Engagement and Conclusion
00:38:47
Speaker
here.
00:38:47
Speaker
And if you do have recommendations, suggestions, if you want to be on this podcast, we're pretty flexible. At ASPPA, you can come and find us, walk right up to us. We'll introduce you to all of our previous guests, which again, check out the Coastal News Today American Shoreline Podcast Network. You can check out all of our old episodes and then follow us on whatever, wherever you listen to this podcast for
00:39:13
Speaker
to get notifications of when we do post our monthly episode. And if you would like to contact us, we have a new email address. It is podcastgoingcoastal at gmail.com. And it will be in the description below as well if you would like to contact us. Yay!
00:39:32
Speaker
Again, we're doing it live. We're doing the thing, starting anew and we'll come at you again into your ear holes next month with a student research spotlight. That's how we'll kick off. So join us and thanks for listening. Yes. Thank you guys. Bye y'all. See ya. See ya.