On the afternoon of Friday, April 19, the UGA River Basin Center hosted a Climate and Water Research Slam, which included lightning talks from 30 faculty and student researchers. All topics related to water and climate change were welcome, and speakers included lawyers, engineers, ecologists, social scientists and a large number of graduate students.
The Climate and Water Research Slam is held every two years, and is a cross-campus collaboration between the RBC, The Office of Sustainability and the Georgia Initiative for Climate and Society. The previous slam, held in May of 2022, featured 22 speakers; this year, that number grew to 30.
A number of IRIS affiliates and graduate students gave talks at this event. They are listed below in order of the event schedule.
- Nashid Mumtaz, College of Engineering: Coamps-tc Ensemble Driven Storm Surge Simulations Using Adirc And Swan For Hurricane Ian
- Adam Orford, UGA Law School Associate Professor: Work in Progress: Legal Barriers to the Energy Transition
- Luciana Iannone Tarcha, College of Engineering: Towards an operational compound model for the St. Johns River
- Rhett Jackson, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources: Rapid denitrification of nitrate-contaminated groundwater in a low-gradient blackwater stream valley
- Oscar Villegas, College of Engineering: Sediment transport in the Savannah Harbor
- Erin Lipp, Environmental Health Science: Climate, Public Health, and Water
- Stevens Charles, College of Engineering: Impact of Controlled Overtopping on Wetland Rehabilitation and Flood Control
- Logan Bayer, College of Engineering: Introduction to the Reduced Physics Hydrologic Model (RPH)
- Felix Santiago-Collazo, College of Engineering: Multi-Flood Hazards Events and their Cascading Impacts on the Community
- Becca Stanley, College of Engineering: Modeling future salt marsh evolution in response to sea-level rise predictions
- Orlando Viloria, College of Engineering: Mapping Compound Inundation Along Puerto Rico’s Coastal Watersheds
The RBC has previously hosted similar research slams, but this year’s event had the highest number of speakers yet. This year, the slam was held at UGA’s Miller Learning Center. Presentations were followed by a reception for participants to exchange ideas and discuss their work.
Graduate student Luciana Iannone Tarcha provided photos of her labmates’ presentations. Thanks to everyone who attended or presented at this fun event, and thanks to the River Basin Center, The Office of Sustainability and the Georgia Initiative for Climate and Society for hosting!





