NOAA acting administrator visits MSU Science and Technology Center at Stennis

Laura Grimm (green jacket, center), visited with ��ɫ�� and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration personnel during a recent visit to the MSU Science and Technology Center at Stennis Space Center. Grimm, who was appointed NOAA’s chief of staff in January, is currently serving as acting administrator. (Submitted photo)

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss.—The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s top official received a first-hand look at collaborations between the federal agency and ��ɫ�� during a recent visit to MSU’s Science and Technology Center at Stennis Space Center.

Laura Grimm, NOAA’s chief of staff who is currently performing the duties of Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, visited the south Mississippi facility on May 23. The MSU Science and Technology Center houses offices for MSU’s Northern Gulf Institute along with offices for NOAA personnel, including the agency’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

In addition to shared physical space, MSU has many longstanding collaborations with NOAA. The Northern Gulf Institute is a NOAA Cooperative Institute that brings together six academic institutions from Gulf Coast states to better understand Gulf environments and share knowledge with key stakeholders. MSU also manages two high-powered computing systems on behalf of NOAA, providing the agency’s scientists with additional resources for atmospheric and environmental modeling. Recently, MSU and NOAA researchers have collaborated to advance artificial intelligence-based tools for automatically detecting and identifying types of fish in images and videos.

“MSU and NOAA have been working together for years on innovative science that enhances our understanding of natural environments, and that collaboration continues to benefit coastal communities and key scientific fields,” said Robert Moorhead, NGI director and Billie J. Ball Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at MSU. “We enjoyed the opportunity to highlight these efforts with the acting administrator as we work to grow our collaborations.”

Grimm is a graduate of the University of South Alabama and previously worked in the Fisheries Ecology Lab at the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory, an NGI member institution. She joined NOAA as chief of staff in January and assumed her current leadership role in April. Prior to joining NOAA, Grimm served as director of ocean markets at the World Wildlife Fund US Oceans.

For more on the Northern Gulf Institute, visit .

For more on NOAA, visit .

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