Columbia Teen, NASA Partner In Mangrove Project: Report

COLUMBIA, MD — An Atholoton sophomore was possibly one of the first high school students ever to speak at a conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Liza Goldberg was 14 when she submitted an inquiry to NASA about working there and in two years, she has developed a program to map potentially at-risk mangroves around the world, according to The Washington Post, which reported she presented her research with NASA at the fall conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union.

The conference, held in New Orleans in mid December, was keynoted by Dan Rather and featured world-renowned scientists discussing their research in earth and space sciences.

Goldberg presented about her research project mapping mangroves. The plants help protect shorelines from erosion and provide habitats and nutrients as part of their ecosystem. The 16-year-old Atholton High School student wrote a computer program that takes into account both environmental factors like temperature and human factors such as farming that may affect the health of mangrove colonies.

The research is of paramount importance after a dieback of mangrove forests in Australia that followed a drought there.

Read the full article from The Washington Post about Goldberg, and see a synopsis of her research here from the American Geophysical Union.

Photo of mangroves in Florida by Elizabeth Janney.