Risk and Exploration: Earth as a Classroom Symposium

"The Risk and Exploration: Earth as a Classroom Symposium" has been scheduled to take place at Louisiana State University on October 28-30, according to a campus press release. The Mayor of Baton Rouge, Melvin "Kip" Holden has also declared those days as "Earth as a Classroom" days. The symposium will be a huge event sponsored mainly by Northrop Grumman Corp. It will focus on exploring and examining risk factors of and beyond Earth.

The event will take place at two locations on campus, The School of the Coast & Environment auditorium and Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes. Both of these auditoriums are state-of-the-art facilities and will host a variety of presentations via both media and internet formats. The event will be open to the public and free of charge.

The risk and exploration symposium will be attended by scientists, explorers, law enforcement, fire safety, campus officials, media, astronauts and officials from NASA. The topics will include space, oceanic and terrestrial explorers, and geared for those who encounter risk, such as firefighters, law enforcement, etc. in their daily lives.

The symposium will also open up discussions in a forum atmosphere to discuss various risk taking philosophies. The purpose of this is for other members of other fields of work to gain appreciation of what others do and understand the various likenesses and differences in between the fields. NASA officials, explorers, scientists and media representatives will all participate in the discussions.

This symposium was modeled after a similar symposium, "Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea, and the Stars," which was held in Monterey, California in 2004. Northrop Grumman expects this symposium to "create momentum for collaborations between industry and academia that will lead to the most significant technological achievements of our time."