Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the UVM Water Resources Institute are pleased to announce a Fall 2026 Research Webinar Series. This series of four webinars will be held on select Mondays from 12–1 PM throughout the semester, with an approximately 30–40-minute presentation followed by 20-minutes for questions. Each presentation will be recorded and made available on our website after the event.
9/21 (Remote via Teams) – Scott George , Status of Round Goby in Eastern North America: Implications for Lake Champlain. Join online here.
Scott George is a biologist in the Watersheds Research Section of the USGS New York Water Science Center in Troy, NY. He completed a master’s degree at the State University at Albany (SUNY) in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on the impact of severe flooding on lotic biota. Scott’s current research is aimed at better understanding riverine fish, benthic macroinvertebrate, and periphyton communities and the disturbances that impact them. Specific ongoing projects include monitoring the expansion of Round Goby towards the Hudson River using environmental DNA and other methods, studying the recovery of fish assemblages in acid-impacted Catskill Mountain streams, and evaluating the toxicity of sediments to benthic macroinvertebrates in Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
10/5 (Hybrid: Teams/Davis Center Room 413) - Julie Dragon, Transmissible Cancer Discovered in Catfish in Vermont’s Lakes. Join online here.
Julie Dragon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and is Director of the Bioinformatics Core in the Larner College of Medicine and Director of the Data Science Core for the Vermont Biomedical Research Network. Her work centers on the use of large genomics data sets to address evolutionary, environmental, and biomedical questions. Dr. Dragon is committed to leveraging genomics data to address many issues impacting our planet and lives. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UVM, where she studied the evolution of an arctic-subarctic section of marsh sedges with Dr. David Barrington.
10/19 (Remote via Teams) - Rodrigo Soares , Bridging the Gaps of Vermont’s Emergency Response Capacity. Join online here.
Rodrigo Soares, is a postdoctoral associate in the UVM Plant and Soil Science Department. He earned his PhD in strategic communication and a masters in mass communication from the University of Central Florida (UCF). Soares has 15 years of experience as a leading practitioner in the communication field, and seven years of applied research in risk and crisis communication. His work has analyzed disease outbreaks and pandemics such as the Zika virus in Brazil and COVID19, through a message design perspective. He also tested the adequacy of crisis communication theories in explaining the failures of institutions facing repeated crises, expanding the understanding of post-crisis learning. His research provides both theoretical advancements and practical applications to the field of risk and crisis communication.
11/2 (Hybrid: Teams/Davis Center Room 413) - Matt Scarborough, Assessing Mechanisms of Phosphorus Removal at a Lake Champlain Basin Wastewater Treatment Plant. Join online here.
Dr. Scarborough is an Associate Professor in UVM’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on the application of microbiomes to protect the natural environment and public health. His currently focuses on the management of organic wastes with the goal of harnessing reactor microbiomes to convert renewable feedstocks to valuable products and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from landfills with soil microbiomes. Dr. Scarborough earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as part of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
11/16 (Hybrid: Teams/Davis Center Room 413) - Adebukola Aborigho, Assessing the Impact of Impaired Lakes on Zooplankton Community Responses to Salt Stress. Join online here.
Adebukola is pursuing a PhD in Aquatic Ecology from the Rubenstein School of Environment at the University of Vermont, and conducts research in the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory. Her research is focused on studying the effects of multiple stressors on the structure and function of freshwater invertebrates (specifically Zooplankton). Adebukola received her BSc. in Animal and Environmental Biology from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 2012. She also holds an MSc. in Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Management from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
