Paul Gayes, the Palmetto Professor of Marine Science and Geology at Coastal Carolina University, will deliver a public lecture, "Castles of Sand and Steel: The collision of growth and policy with the state's advancing shoreline", on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Wall Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

As director of Coastal's Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, Gayes is a recognized authority on coastal geological processes in South Carolina and has been actively involved in coastal management and policy issues in the state for the past 19 years.

Gayes joined the faculty at Coastal in 1987 after receiving his Ph.D. in coastal oceanography from the Marine Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. At Coastal, Gayes has brought in $5.5 million in research grants from a wide range of federal and state agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, S.C. Dept. of Natural Resources and SC DHEC-OCRM.

The Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies was established in 1988 to facilitate basic and applied research in marine and wetland environments of the region. Under Gayes' direction, the center has earned a national reputation for the scope and quality of its research and the innovative technical equipment it has developed. The facility employs 30 associated research scientists and professional staff.

Gayes has presented invited lectures on his research at professional meetings across the U.S., Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. His work has taken more than 500 Coastal students on extended research trips along the East Coast as well to the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. These students have gone on to prestigious graduate programs such as Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Duke University, University of Hawaii and other universities as well as positions in federal and state agencies and the private sector.

Gayes is the 11th recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Scholar Lecturer Award, presented each year by Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) to a CCU faculty member who has outstanding abilities as a teacher, scholar and communicator. The recipient of the honor delivers a lecture during the fall semester on an original topic drawn from his or her area of expertise.