DURHAM, N.H. - Kicking off the fall series and following on the heels of Portsmouth's annual Fish and Lobster Festival is the first fall science café on the topic of North Atlantic fish stocks and long-term human trends at the Portsmouth Brewery Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013, at 6 p.m.  The fall 2013 science café series, hosted by the University of New Hampshire, NH EPSCoR, and the Portsmouth Brewery, explores topics related to the sustainability of food.

The Science Café, hosted by UNH faculty member Cameron Wake, provides a unique opportunity for Seacoast residents to feed their minds with contemporary science in the relaxed atmosphere of a pub. The discussions, which are free and open to all, are held once a month on Wednesday evenings in the Portsmouth Brewery's Jimmy LaPanza Lounge from 6-8 pm. Doors open at 5 p.m. for food and drinks.

Sept. 18: Long-Term Human Trends on North Atlantic Fish Stocks

Presented by Jeff Bolster and Jaime Cournane

Bolster is a professor of history at UNH who has been called a maritime historian, a historian of Afro-America, an environmental historian, and an Atlantic historian. He is the author of the prize-winning book "The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail". He also co-directs the History of Marine Animal Populations Center at UNH, an interdisciplinary, international research project working on marine environmental history and historical ecology globally.

Cournane is a Sea Grant/National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Population Dynamics Fellow and Ph.D. student at UNH. She currently is involved in a research project on the spatial management of groundfish resources in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. She also participates in at sea research and holds an internship at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NMFS, Woods Hole, Mass.

Oct. 16: New England Food Vision

Presented by Tom Kelly and Joanne Burke

Kelly is the founding director of UNH's Sustainability Institute and the UNH chief sustainability officer.  Kelly collaborates with faculty, staff, students and others in the development of curriculum, operations, research and engagement policies, practices and initiatives related to UNH's four educational initiatives in biodiversity, climate, culture, and food.

Burke, the Thomas W. Haas Professor in Sustainable Food Systems, is a clinical associate professor in nutrition and director of the dietetic internship program at UNH. Her areas of research focus on community nutrition with an emphasis on sustainable food systems, including nutrient analysis and food system capacity, as well as food access, health outcomes and social justice.

Nov. 13: N.H. Oysters:  Good for You, Good For The Bay

Presented by Ray Konisky and Ray Grizzle

Konisky is the director of marine science for the New Hampshire chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He has a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire in environmental science and an MBA from Boston University. His work is focused on estuarine ecology and services, especially restoration of salt marsh, fish habitat, eelgrass beds, and shellfish reefs.  

Grizzle is a research professor in the department of biological sciences at UNH, as well as a co-owner of an oyster farm. He has a Ph.D. in ecology from Rutgers University and has been at UNH since 1999. His research encompasses a variety of topics dealing with seafloor ecology and most recently has been focused on oyster ecology and restoration of natural reefs.

For further questions or to be added to a mailing list regarding future events, contact: Evelyn Jones NH EPSCoR at (603) 862-1804 or Evelyn.Jones@unh.edu.

The Portsmouth Science Café is sponsored by NH EPSCoR, the University of New Hampshire and the Portsmouth Brewery.

NH EPSCoR is a program funded by the National Science Foundation to advance New Hampshire's competitiveness in science and engineering. It's critical for the state to broaden the capacity to conduct research; to support business, industry and society with a workforce educated in science, engineering and mathematics; and to improve communication between scientists and the public.

The Portsmouth Brewery is New Hampshire's original brewpub serving award-winning beers and creative cuisine featuring locally-sourced ingredients in the heart of Market Square since 1991. We serve all types and are proud to enable folks to do good while drinking well through a number of philanthropic activities.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.

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