GSMNP Science Colloquium 2021

Great Smoky Mountains National Park and DLiA present the annual 2021 Science Colloquium. This year’s colloquium will be a virtual event, taking place over Zoom. Learn about the science happening in Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the local and regional researchers that are making it happen! Registration is free and open to the public.

Timing: Thursday, March 4, 2021 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

Location: virtual via Zoom

Registration: To view the colloquium on March 4th, please register (button below) and you will receive a Zoom link via email. Registration is FREE.
Speakers: do not register here. You should have received an email with instructions about how to participate as a speaker. Please contact Will (will@dlia.org) ASAP if you have not received this email.

Schedule and abstracts

Join our teacher workshop

We will be holding a virtual workshop for teachers about our iScience biodiversity program on the same day (March 4th) from 3:00-5:00 PM ET. We welcome teachers, other educators, and parents to join both events. Find out more and register at this page.

Information for presenters

Submit a talk

Call for submissions: We welcome you to submit a presentation about your research that is either actively taking place in Great Smoky Mountains National Park or that is of significance to the Smokies, and that is at a stage in analysis where a full picture of the research can be presented. Note: due to time constraints, we may not be able to fit all submitted talks.

Submitting a presentation: To submit your work for consideration in the Colloquium, please email your tentative title and presenter to Paul Super (Paul_Super@nps.gov) by December 17, 2020. Submitters will be notified soon after as to their acceptance in the Colloquium. Accepted presenters will be asked to submit an abstract (250 words max), as well as the final talk title, and names and affiliations of the presenter and co-authors, to Paul Super (paul_super@nps.gov) by February 5, 2021.

Important dates

• December 17, 2020 – deadline to indicate intent to present. Send tentative title and presenter name to Paul Super (Paul_Super@nps.gov)
• February 5, 2021 – deadline to submit abstract, final title, and presenter/co-author names and affiliations to Paul Super
• Week of February 8, 2021 – presenters will receive a Zoom Webinar invitation via email; meeting registration will be available here for all attendees

Helpful information

Conference format: The 2021 Colloquium will be held virtually via Zoom’s Webinar platform. Presenters will be set as “panelists” on the Webinar, meaning that they can do most of the normal functions of a Zoom Meeting (share video, audio, and screen). FYI, the audience will be able to ask questions but only during special Q&A sessions and will be muted with video off otherwise. We’ll send presenters more information about what to expect closer to the colloquium.

Time slots: Presentation slots will be 20 minutes (including time for questions). We will send you a finalized schedule close to the event and will provide more details about the Q&A after each talk.

Presentation format: Slide decks can be in any format (speakers will share their screen via Zoom), however we recommend PowerPoint, PDF, Google Slides or Keynote in wide-format (16:9).

Presentation content: Please note that many in the audience will have advanced degrees, but few will have advanced degrees in your topic, so plan to provide a bit of explanation of technical jargon and stay away from acronyms.