Programs and Research Areas

Marine and Atmospheric Science is an interdisciplinary program dealing with the study of the world's oceans and atmosphere: their physical and biological constituents, the influence of oceanic resources on human society and the conservation and future development of those resources.

The program offers the following areas of study:

Biological Oceanography
the ecology of marine systems including fisheries and ecosystem modeling, and the interfacing of biological processes with physical phenomena.
Marine Biology
functional morphology and development, evolution, physiology, biochemistry and genetics of marine plants and animals.
Chemical Oceanography
chemical properties and processes of seawater, the sources and relationships between various dissolved compounds, mineral extraction, and marine pollution including nuclear waste disposal. New areas of research include marine pharmacology and natural product chemistry and this involves the search for useful drugs and organic compounds in marine organisms.
Geological Oceanography
the shape of the ocean floor, rocks, sediments, fossils and minerals, coastal erosion, oil and gas deposits, seismic activity and plate tectonics.
Physical Oceanography
physical properties of seawater, light and sound in the ocean, tides and waves, how water and energy are circulated by currents, the interaction of the ocean and the atmosphere, and the ocean's effects on weather and climate.
Marine Science/Computer Science
research in applied scientific aspects of ocean science and management. The curriculum emphasizes computing skills for data capture, data visualization, and data analysis and programming skills sufficient to write system models, to program instrumentation, and to interface with remote sensing applications.
Meteorology
weather, climate, atmospheric circulation, remote sensing of the atmosphere and air-sea interaction.
Marine Affairs and Policy
marine policy, political ecology, marine resource economics, management of marine resources, environmental impact analysis, marine cultural resources, marine anthropology, ocean and coastal law and policy.