Abstracts are currently being accepted and considered. You can choose to present your work as a poster, oral, or either. All presentations (poster and/or oral) must be given IN-PERSON at the event. Remote presentations will NOT be considered or accepted. Lead authors will be notified of their acceptance within 5-6 days after their submission. See additional comments below.
Poster presentations will be held on Friday, Nov. 7th from 7 to 9 pm, (note that this is 1 hour earlier than in previous years). Poster set-up from 4-5:30 pm in the Terrace Room of the Elaine Langone Center on the campus of Bucknell University. Posters size should be limited to 60″ wide x 48″ tall and will be displayed on clip stands erected in the Terrace Room. Posters should remain on display until 1 pm Saturday.
Oral presentations will be on Saturday, Nov. 8th in the afternoon between 1 and 3 pm. Depending on the number of submissions, there will likely be 2 to 3 concurrent sessions held in various rooms in the Elaine Langone Center. Lead authors will be notified if your oral presentation abstract has been accepted within 4 days after they submitted it, with the understanding that they will deliver it on Saturday, Nov. 8 between 1 and 3 pm. The exact time slot, session, and room location of their presentation can only be determined after all the oral presentation abstracts have been submitted. The deadline is October 27th, after which the symposium technical committee will organize them into sessions and times. Lead authors of oral presentations should receive an email with the exact time slot and room location by Nov. 2nd.
Schedule changes this year: This year we are beginning the symposium at 6 pm on Friday, November 7th. For longtime symposium attendees, please note that this one hour earlier than in previous years. Also, we will be ending the symposium at 3:15 pm on Saturday, November 8th. The tentative schedule is provided below. The room locations will be the same as in previous years, just the starting and ending times have been adjusted.
Schedule
6:00-6:05 pm – Welcome
6:05-6:10 pm – Opening remarks
6:10-6:55 pm – Keynote address
7:00-9:00 pm – Poster presentations and Exhibits
8:00-9:00 pm – Evening Social
9:00-9:10 am – Opening Remarks
9:10 am – 10:15 pm – Water
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Invited Snap Talks and Breakout Discussions – “Celebrating 20 years of River Research and Watershed Conservation; Future Possibilities and Directions”
12:00-1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 – 3:00 pm – Oral Presentations
3:00 – 3:10 pm – Wrap-up and Closing
Please register – it’s FREE and easy
Registering for this year’s River Symposium allows us to run things much more smoothly upon your arrival. It is free and only takes a minute.
If you plan to join remotely via Zoom, please check back for the online schedules for Friday and Saturday for links to individual sessions.
Coming Together to Inspire Change
This symposium draws together people from all walks of life who share a common interest in rivers, watersheds, communities, and the connections therein. It also offers a time and a place where the public can interact with academics, professionals, and regulators, all working toward the same goal – ensuring our watersheds remain healthy for generations to come.
This year’s event will highlight and promote collaborative partnerships that focus on remediating polluted discharge emanating from abandoned coal mines across Pennsylvania and improving the health and resilience of the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.
Last Year’s Program with Abstracts
A copy of last year’s symposium proceedings can be downloaded. Complete with schedule of events, list of exhibitors, and abstracts for all oral presentations and poster presentations, it also has embedded Zoom links, enabling you to go directly from your PDF viewer to the Zoom session associated with a particular talk or breakout discussion.
The Program with Abstracts is 104 pages in length, so it may take 10-15 seconds to appear in your browser or download to your computer, depending on your internet connection.
2024 Keynote speaker Charles Cravotta, III, Ph.D., P.G, with students and faculty who presented posters at last year’s River Symposium.
Commitment to Care
Bucknell is preparing to host this year’s symposium as an in-person event so that all individuals onsite — attendees, speakers, staff, vendors, and venue personnel — remain safe and comfortable. Creating a safe, worry-free symposium experience is our top priority.
We are monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and following the guidance of our partners at Geisinger Medical Center, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the Center for Disease Control.
Find up-to-date information on COVID and events on our campus on the Bucknell COVID-19 Information website. Should conditions change, we are prepared to offer the symposium entirely online (virtual) like we have previously.
Getting Here
Please feel free to use the helpful links below to plan your trip to the River Symposium
Testimonials
“This is a terrific event! It’s great to see the students present their posters on Friday night and attend the talks and breakout sessions on Saturday. I made a lot of contacts too.” (member of the public)
““I get a lot out of the plenary talks, breakout discussions, oral presentations, and conversations over lunch. I learned so much and plan to come back next year.” (undergraduate student)
“I really appreciate the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of this symposium. It’s a great networking event too. The evening social during Friday’s poster session and the lunch and refreshments during the exhibits are a very nice touch.” (member of local conservancy)
“I really appreciate the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of this symposium. It’s a great networking event too. The evening social during Friday’s poster session and the lunch and refreshments during the exhibits are a very nice touch.“I like how this symposium tries to weave together art, religion, science, economics and policy. I hope Bucknell continues it for many years to come.“ (local citizen)
The annual River Symposium is an educational community outreach event sponsored by the Bucknell Center for Sustainability & the Environment, the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies, and the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center at Penn State University.
For more information, please contact Dr. Benjamin Hayes, (brh010@bucknell.edu). Director of the Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program or Sean Reese (spr016@bucknell.edu). Research Scientist at the Bucknell Center for Sustainability & the Environment at