I took a break from lab work and plankton research to attend the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium. in Honolulu from June 19th to 24th. 
It was my first step back into a science-centric conference in almost a decade. I was excited to be immersed once again into marine ecology. I’ve been floating out at the fringes of research since dropping out of graduate school at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and transferring to the Science Communication program at the University of California-Santa Cruz in 1994.
I’m grateful to this Artist in Residency for giving me the chance to see and hear from some of the legends in science and find out about the research being done to conserve and preserve coral reefs around the world. Two pages out of my sketchbook capture sketchnotes from two presentations. Regardless of how many months or years have passed since the conference, I encourage you to do a search for the hashtag: #ICRS2016 and immerse yourself into social media captured moments from the conference.