This event is full but you can join the waitlist
As we continue transitioning your favorite WAN events to a virtual platform, we will be offering our first ever Zoom with a Champion event. Just like our Signature Event Dinner with a Champion, it will provide WAN members an opportunity to have an intimate conversation with an incredible professional in an aquatic field. While we will miss getting to gather around a dinner table with you all to share good food and stimulating conversation, we encourage participants to bring a deep sea-themed beverage of choice for a creative conversation starter (so have fun with the theme!).
Interested in learning more about the role of private foundations in funding innovative science and research, exciting new voyages of discovery with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and more? This is an event you won't want to miss!
Tickets are free and are available to WAN members on a first come, first serve basis. Event to be held 6:30-7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 18th via Zoom.
About Our Champion
We are honored to be joined by ocean champion, Dr. Jyotika (JO-tih-kah) Virmani. Dr. Virmani recently became the first Executive Director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a global nonprofit whose mission is to advance oceanographic research through the development of innovative technologies, open sharing of information, and broad communication about ocean health.
From 2014 to her current position, Dr. Virmani served as the executive and technical director of multiple planet and environment competitions at XPRIZE Foundation, a 501(c)3 dedicated to using large-scale global incentive competitions to crowdsource solutions to the world’s grand challenges. The competitions Dr. Virmani was involved in spanned developing new technologies to map the deepest depths of the ocean and inventing new pH sensors to measure ocean acidification to developing innovative biodiversity assessment technologies.
Dr. Virmani previously worked as associate director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography and as a senior scientist at the Met Office, the United Kingdom’s national weather service.She has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Imperial College London, a master’s degree in atmospheric and marine environmental science from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and a doctorate in physical oceanography from the University of South Florida.
