The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been referred to as the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history. As Lohrenz points out, scientific observations played a critical role in the response to the crisis and in understanding the impacts on the marine life and ecosystems in the northern Gulf of Mexico. But the magnitude of the crisis also created, in his view, “serious challenges for coordination of federal, university and other non-governmental research efforts.” And the urgency of the crisis, along with the intense media scrutiny, meant that scientific issues were often debated outside the normal peer-review process. Lohrenz will give us his perspectives on all of this, along with a status report on the most recent findings regarding the spill, and recommendations for how future responses might better engage the broader scientific community.