Research in the time of climate change

The impact of natural disasters cannot be denied. The battering our planet has taken from a behemoth tsunami in the South Pacific, a record-setting hurricane season, a cataclysmic earthquake in Pakistan, and the early brutal winter storms across the United States this season, has been nothing short of a wake-up call that we must understand our natural world better.

At the Rosenstiel School, we have been doing just that.

The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami is one of the premier oceanographic research and education institutions in the world. As the only subtropical institute of its kind in the continental United States, its more than 100 Ph.D. faculty members, 190 graduate students, and more than 250 research support staff comprise the academic community. Through excellence in applied and basic marine and atmospheric research, the Rosenstiel School sheds light on today’s most pressing environmental issues, including fisheries, oceans and human health, hurricane warnings, climate change, and coral reefs.

The School’s faculty have a remarkable record of success in winning peer-reviewed, federally sponsored research awards because its research is sound and relevant. Our challenge is to maintain and improve this extraordinary record by continuing to recruit and retain excellent faculty, staff, and students and by providing the resources they need to facilitate research excellence. It is also critical that the school focus on the topics that are not only of interest today, but will be at the forefront of relevance in the future, as well.

Rosenstiel School researchers are among the leading voices heard on climate change science, remote sensing technology, ecosystem-based fisheries management, improved understanding of coastal and deep-sea ocean processes, and numeric modeling that is striving to fine-tune hurricane predictions from the tens of kilometers level down to just a single kilometer.

But, these kinds of research face many challenges.

Research funding continues to become more competitive while the problems facing our planet only continue to grow. Our waters are very heavily used, red tide events on our Gulf Coast are having an impact on health and the economy, our coral reefs have shown marked deterioration over the past 50 years, and fish populations have declined dramatically. Together we can do something about it.

Whether it’s committing to a career in ocean or atmospheric science, supporting Rosenstiel School research, or getting involved in the issues our research raises, we all play a part in making our planet a better place for this generation and the many future ones.

Welcome to the Rosenstiel School where we strive to find answers and lead the way.

Otis Brown, Dean
Rosenstiel School