By Veronica M. Berounsky, Ph.D. ’90 Imagine coming to the United States for the first time, entering a doctoral program and being told you have only four years to attain your Ph.D., all while English is not your native language and your husband and two young sons remain at home, an ocean away. Despite these […]

By Lauren Thacker In the ocean, unicellular phytoplankton are primary producers—they synthesize their own energy and form the base of the aquatic food web. These tiny organisms are integral to carbon exchange and their health, distribution, and abundance are key indicators of ecosystem change. In the vast ocean, microscopic phytoplankton have an outsized role. That […]

Aboard GSO, Spring 2024 Recently, I sent a request to the GSO faculty asking for their help in creating a list of the most important discoveries made at the school since its founding. “A very difficult task,” read the first email response that I received. Which was of course followed by a long list of […]

By Bill Ibelle Nicholas Pizzo always loved to surf, so it’s a bit of a surprise that it took as long as it did for him to ride that wave into a career in oceanography. As an undergraduate at University of California, Santa Barbara, he developed a passion for mathematics and physics as a way […]

By Veronica M. Berounsky, Ph.D. ’90 In the realm of higher education, the nation’s maritime academies stand as unique institutions. These seven academies weave the pursuit of a college degree with the practical skills and at-sea training essential to forge commissioned officers with U.S. Coast Guard licenses. Endeavor, the research vessel operated by the Graduate […]

By Michael Blanding Lobster is a mainstay of many a Rhode Island shore dinner, as it is throughout New England. The local story of lobsters and their crab cousins in Narragansett Bay, however, has been one of constant ups and downs. During the 1960s, crustaceans were few and far between in the bay. Then climate […]

By Ellen Liberman Rennie Meyers knew she wanted to work in an ocean-related field since she was a teenager in the Bronx, volunteering as a docent at the New York Aquarium on Coney Island. Her career path included stints as a master diver in Puget Sound and at the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean […]