Why Join GERS?

A mere $10.00 per year ($7.00 for students) will get you full membership in GERS. It's quite a bargain.

The primary purpose of GERS is to bring together, exclusively for educational purposes, persons interested in estuarine and coastal research and problems in the Gulf of Mexico Region. One of our most visible functions is our annual spring meeting .These meetings feature oral and poster presentations of research, social events, a banquet, and often field trips.

Our primary emphasis is keeping the meetings comfortable and informal; thus, they provide an excellent environment to present research and to meet other scientists who are working in similar fields. We make several monetary travel awards to deserving students who want to attend our meetings and present their research, and have corporate sponsors who support sizable monetary awards given to the best student presenters.

In all GERS functions, supporting and encouraging undergraduate and graduate students is our primary goal, since they are the future of our profession. GERS tries to encourage student participation by funding numerous student travel awards to both GERS meetings and meetings. In addition to annual meetings, we have a number of new programs that may interest you.

GERS also has a Mentors in Marine and Estuarine Science program. In this program, we will host upper-level undergraduate and graduate students from majority-minority colleges and universities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida at our annual meetings.

Each student will be paired with both a student member and a regular GERS member, who serve as meeting mentors. The idea is that these students, selected for their interest in coastal and estuarine science, will have the opportunity to travel to a regional scientific meeting and, with the help of their mentors, meet scientists and participate in all functions. Through first-hand involvement in a professional scientific conference, and through meeting other active scientists and students, we hope that our program will help increase the number of minority students in graduate programs across the Gulf Coast.

Please, join the Gulf Estuarine Research Society today, and participate in our meetings and programs. This type of regional involvement in important to the conveyance of ideas and answers to the many coastal and estuarine problems facing ourshared Gulf Coast.