Applied Ocean Science PhD student Connor Mack traveled to Vancouver, Canada, to take part in the Ocean Visions Biennial Summit in March 2025 with support from the Julia R. Brown Education and Research Fund. This summit convened researchers, industry leaders, government officials, and NGOs to discuss the latest advances and policy challenges in the marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) field. In this post, Connor shares his experience including summit highlights, fresh insights, and future collaborations that will shape his doctoral research and career in mCDR.
Thanks to the generosity of the Julia R. Brown Education and Research Fund, I was able to attend the Ocean Visions Biennial Summit in Vancouver, Canada this past month. The summit was a convening of professionals, academics, government agency representatives and other stakeholders in the marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) space. There were three days of programming featuring talks from leaders in the field, group discussions and other activities.
The discourse throughout the conference was understandably conscious of the new situation in Washington DC, and the field of climate science at large is facing unprecedented uncertainty. Attending the summit has given me much greater insight into how the mCDR field as a whole is assessing its political opportunities over the next four years. I plan to spend my career working on these issues, so it was incredibly valuable to be able to learn firsthand about where there might still be opportunities to contribute.
I was also able to connect in person with people working on the issues that I am interested in which was both exciting and an important career development step. The first night featured a happy hour at Vancouver’s Science World Museum which was a great opportunity to meet people working in the field. I got a few concrete leads on opportunities to pursue as a postdoc during this event. One of those opportunities is based at Dalhousie University, called the mCDR COMPASS program. I had a great conversation with the director of the program who encouraged me to apply as soon as possible. Since the event I’ve submitted a statement of interest to the program and plan to be in contact with them over the next few months as I move towards qualifying as a PhD candidate.
I was also able to chat with folks on the MRV & ocean modeling side at [C]Worthy, a non-profit organization working to improve mCDR modeling capabilities across the field. This is another organization that I would be interested in working with or for in the coming years and we have tentative plans to collaborate on some modeling work if time allows in the coming months. I’m hoping to be able to learn more about ocean modeling from the folks at [C]Worthy and make this a part of my skillset moving forward.
There were a lot of interesting talks given throughout the week. One that stood out to me was an engineer who is working to develop a next-generation pH sensor that requires no titration and can be mounted on a buoy or other sensor platform. A sensor like this would be crucial for the development of rigorous measurement frameworks (M in MRV) that would enable the scaling of mCDR technologies.
I also learned more about the landscape of reporting standards and independent verifiers—who the players are and what they do. One of the leading firms, Isometric, has developed reporting standards for a range of carbon removal pathways (both terrestrial and marine). Then independent third parties with knowledge of a firm’s processes go in and verify removals with site visits. One thing I am curious to learn more about are the policies and systems in place across these organizations that ensure incentives do not become destructively misaligned. This is something I will learn more about as I move deeper into the world of CDR policy.
Overall, my experience at the summit was great—I made connections with several potential collaborators, gained experience at a professional conference, and broadly learned more about my field of interest. I would not have been able to attend without the generous grant from the Julia R. Brown Fund, and I am very grateful for this opportunity. The mCDR community is small and I was able to form meaningful connections at this event that will serve me very well in the future and allow me to have an impact in the field after I complete my PhD.
Blog content and images provided by Connor Mack – thank you!