The Port Townsend Marine Science Center welcomes Dr. Rick Jahnke, Port Townsend resident and Professor Emeritus of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography to deliver the keynote lecture at the PTMSC 2011 Annual Meeting on Saturday, February 19 at 4pm.

The Annual Meeting will be held at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington St, in Port Townsend, WA. The public is encouraged to attend; the meeting is free to members; $7/adult, $5/youth for nonmembers.

PTMSC Director Anne Murphy will briefly present a review of 2010, programming for 2011 and share thoughts about PTMSC moving forward. She will then turn the floor over to Dr. Jahnke.

His updated findings indicate that human-caused global environmental change is accelerating. Dr. Jahnke will present his latest observations of warming, ocean acidification, Arctic ice loss, highlighting the evidence for and possible consequences of release of methane from the Arctic and the rise of geo-engineering planning.

Rick Jahnke received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a PhD in Chemical Oceanography from the University of Washington; he spent roughly 30 years pursuing an academic career, first at the University of California, San Diego and then within the University System of Georgia. Jahnke conducted research focused primarily on sea floor geochemistry and the marine carbon cycle; he spent the last few years in Washington D.C. directing a program to develop and deploy a global sensor system to advance observations of ocean phenomena.