Earthwatch Sponsors Conference

The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will report on UN efforts to improve education in developing countries today at the Science Center.

Federico Mayor will join 87 scientists who are flying in from around the world to attend a conference on the environment sponsored by Earthwatch, a Watertown-based non-profit environmental group.

Andrew Hudson, Earthwatch's director of research, said he hopes UNESCO and Earthwatch will work together in the future.

"We're trying to get UNESCO to share in sponsoring projects that meet UNESCO's needs," Hudson said, adding that these projects would help countries become more self-sufficient.

Earthwatch sponsors research projects that "solve environmental questions" in sixty countries.

The scientists' sponsored research varies widely, Hudson said. It includes everything from preventing breast cancer in St. Lucia to studying China's ancient elephants.

Erik Mortensen, one of the scientists who will be at the conference, develops and tests adobe homes as an alternative to wood homes. Earthwatch hopes to reduce deforestation in the Phillipines through Mortensen's project.

"The researchers will exchange ideas and educate each other," said Annie Abbruzzese, an Earthwatch volunteer. "We hope to also get the word out to the public."

At least five to six hundred people will attend the conference which lasts from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., said Shepley Metcalf, Earthwatch's media relations director.

In the first part of the conference, scientists, volunteers and high school educators will discuss Earthwatch's past efforts to improve classroom education about the environment.

The general session will feature speeches by Mayor and Earthwatch President Brian Rosborough.

Following the speeches, scientists will give twelve-minute slide presentations of their research. Five rooms, each with its own topic of discussion, will be set up for this debate.

At 5 p.m. the conference will move to Memorial Hall. The researchers will hold. The researchers will hold what Abbruzzese described as an "adult science fair." They will present posters describing their work and will talk with those attending the conference about their projects.

Volunteers for Earthwatch give two weeks of their time and about $1,500 to the effort, Hudson said. They are divided into teams and during thecourse of a typical project, three to four teamsspend two weeks each at the research site.

"It was an incredible experience," saidSussanah L. Thayer '95, of her Earthwatchexpedition in Mexico, where she spent three weeksstudying sea turtles. "We'd live in houses on thebeach. At eight at night, we'd wait at the beachesfor turtles to come and lay eggs." Thayer said herteam took the eggs to a preservation area wherethey would be safe from poachers.

The conference fees are $5 for the generalpublic and $3 for Harvard students.

Students may find opportunities forvolunteering in Memorial Hall, Abbruzzese said

"It was an incredible experience," saidSussanah L. Thayer '95, of her Earthwatchexpedition in Mexico, where she spent three weeksstudying sea turtles. "We'd live in houses on thebeach. At eight at night, we'd wait at the beachesfor turtles to come and lay eggs." Thayer said herteam took the eggs to a preservation area wherethey would be safe from poachers.

The conference fees are $5 for the generalpublic and $3 for Harvard students.

Students may find opportunities forvolunteering in Memorial Hall, Abbruzzese said