What a memorable day! Last month, Normandeau’s Michelle Vukovich and Julia Robinson Willmott had so much fun at the Girls Do Science 2023 event held at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Our booth entertained a whopping 1225 adults and 575 children for a total of 1800 visitors. Guests learned a lot from our Normandeau team—from how to look for clues of animal presence to learning about fish and their passage through dams, how to track them using tags, and what we find out about them through these studies.
Using our ReMOTe.normandeau.com data portal, our experts showed wildlife distributions in the ocean; we had young budding scientists as well as experienced enthusiasts identify birds, rays, turtles, sharks, and marine mammals from aerial imagery; and we spoke to all our visitors about renewable energy resources. Our booth also featured videos collected by Normandeau’s ATOM systems, which are currently deployed 27 miles offshore of Virginia. These videos showed wildlife activity around offshore turbines. Visitors loved the clear images of birds and bats catching insects, and how they kept safely out of the reach of the moving turbine blades. Watching the peregrine falcon breeze around the turbine was an undeniable favorite—closely followed by the lollypops that we had out for our younger science enthusiasts.
Normandeau was in good company at this event as many other well-known scientists were in attendance:
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera, FLMNH
HERpetology (Blackburn Lab)
North Central Florida Society for Neuroscience
Florida Museum Mammals Collection
Ordway Lab of Ecosystem Conservation
UF Biology
UF Aquatic Animal Health Program
UF Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
Association of Women Geoscientist
Soltis Lab
Taylor Lab
This event was especially rewarding as Normandeau representatives included two of our very successful “women in STEM”—giving them the great opportunity to inspire the next generation of female scientists. Female representation in the STEM industries is still fairly low, but the number is growing. Normandeau is committed to female representation and proudly boasts a leadership team that is half women.
Normandeau is currently hiring for an array of different skill sets. If you or someone you know is interested, check out our open opportunities for more information.