FSU OCEANOGRAPHY
Newsletter No. 14, WINTER 1997

Department of Oceanography Chair, Dr. David Thistle
Newsletter Editor, Designer, and HTML Author: Laura Young

View from the bridge
Feature: Hsueh helped revive oceanography in China
Arctic specialist joins faculty
New Staff and Promotions
Feature: Van Gorder balances a keyboard in each hand
In the Field Photo Feature
Student Honors
Published Findings
Alumni Updates and Degrees Conferred





Hsueh helped revive
oceanography in China

by Laura Young

These days, university students can take courses on the impact that cultures around the world have on global scientific inquiry.

In 1979, Prof. Ya Hsueh had no such preparation for a project in the newly reopened People's Republic of China (PRC). At the time, Hsueh was studying the coastal upwelling of nutrients off Oregon, USA, as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration program.

"The phone just rang, and I picked it up," Hsueh recalls. "Dr. John Milleman [Woods Hole] said I had been one of five scientists picked" to go to China. Although surprised by the invitation, he readily agreed to join the team. The China seas would offer him a much more dynamical setting in which to study coastal circulation. In addition, it would give him the opportunity to go back to the homeland his family fled during the communist takeover of 1949.

In January of 1986, Hsueh and other researchers aboard the Thomas Thompson deployed current meters in the Yellow Sea, as part of the Papa Tua Expedition.

China's Cultural Revolution halted most serious oceanographic work from 1966 to 1976. Along with most other academics, oceanographers were persecuted, and almost no new students entered the field for a decade. In 1977, after a purge of radicals opposed to revival of oceanographic research, dormant education and research institutes began rebuilding their staff and programs from scratch. Early in 1979, a delegation of Chinese oceanographers visited the United States. Hsueh was one of the few chosen for the group of American oceanographers who reciprocated the visit later that year. This American group was apparently the only significant outside influence invited to participate in the revival of oceanography in China. The following year, the two governments agreed to conduct two surveys in the East China Sea.

"It was tough at first," says Hsueh. "Their oceanography people were Navy, in other words, military people. It was hard to make them understand that you can't do science with that rigid an approach."

Concerns of national security presented difficulties as well. The field work (conducted in 1980 and 1981) involved both Chinese and US vessels. During the first cruise, the PRC would not allow the US vessels to maneuver in all of the areas that the Chinese vessels did. Station locations could not be changed during the cruise without special permission from Beijing, which never came through.

"They told us that the US ships cannot go west of a certain meridian," says Hsueh, recalling his frustration over the political constraints. "The oceanographic process knows no such boundary."

Gradually, a cooperative relationship was forged. By 1986, Hsueh was able to convene a unique planning meeting in Quingdao between US and PRC research teams.

"There hasn't been another one like this. We talked about major research directions that should be taken in the Yellow Sea." The resulting leg of the Papa-Tua Expedition led to the first long-term (over four months) continuous observations of currents in the Yellow Sea. The data unlocked the secrets of the Yellow Sea Warm Current, a current that transports tropical heat and salt hundreds of kilometers landward through the continental shelf edge along which the Kuroshio flows.

When Hsueh's involvement in the US-PRC oceanographic exchange concluded in 1991, a Chinese National Oceanographic Data Center had been established. Long-term, multi-cruise projects had successfully advanced knowledge of flow and sedimentation dynamics along the East China Sea shelf and of air-sea interaction in the tropical western Pacific Ocean. In addition, issues of mutual exchange of genetic stock (for example, scallops and shrimp for fisheries enhancements) were being discussed.

Hsueh's research of East China Sea dynamics continues today as part of the KEEP (Kuroshio Edge Exchange Processes) programs. Initiated by Taiwanese oceanographers in 1988, KEEP research is planned through 1999 with participation from French, Russian, and American scientists. This 'global change' program is documenting the movement of sediments and anthropogenic materials carried by the Yangtze and Yellow rivers into the marginal East China Sea and northward via the Kuroshio into the North Pacific. Models of these profound dynamics should allow scientists to predict on a global scale how human activity affects the ocean's biogeochemical processes, and thereby predict major changes in the Earth's climate.

Closer to home, last year Hsueh embarked on a project to model the complex dynamics of both local and distant influences on flow in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. This research, in conjunction with observational research being conducted by FSU colleague Wilton Sturges, has received $1.6 million of support from the US Minerals Management Service.

Surprisingly, Hsueh's interest in ocean dynamics began in the field of engineering, studying how water flows in ditches. He received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the National Taiwan University in 1958. By the time he finished graduate school at Johns Hopkins University in 1965, a national trend phasing out engineering programs in favor of science programs had steered him into the field of geophysical fluid dynamics.

Hsueh joined the faculty at FSU in 1967, was promoted to associate professor in 1973 and to professor in 1980. He has served two terms (1982­p;1985, 1989­p;1991) as chairman of FSU's Department of Oceanography. He lives in Tallahassee with his wife Amy and their two sons Gary and Michael.

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Arctic specialist joins faculty

by Laura Young

Yager works with
cold-loving marine
bacteria from waters
off the northeast
coast of Greenland
in a sub-zero
refridgerated laboratory
van aboard
the US Coast
Guard Cutter Polar Sea.

The Department is pleased to welcome Dr. Patricia L. Yager as a new Oceanography faculty member specializing in microbial activity in extreme ocean environments.

Yager's work takes her into the Arctic Ocean to explore how marine life in that frigid region affects climate across the globe.

So far, relatively little data has been collected from the Arctic Ocean. Yager's research promises to begin filling that gap. She will analyze seawater samples from the Alaskan Arctic with techniques never before applied in the high latitudes.

If all goes as planned, the resulting data could provide critical information about the region's role in the global transfer of carbon from the air to the oceans. In this effort, she joins the international network of scientists seeking to understand the fate of carbon released into the atmosphere as a result of human activity, especially fossil fuel combustion.

In the atmosphere, carbon contributes to global warming. Carbon is removed from the atmosphere by the seas, where marine plants convert some of it to organic matter using sunlight. Unfortunately, scientists have been unable to trace what happens to nearly one third of the carbon that humans send into the atmosphere.

Because estimates thus far of the amounts of atmospheric carbon being cycled into the oceans have not accounted for the Arctic Ocean, Yager's research may offer significant advances toward delineating a balanced global carbon budget. Moreover, her work may give us a better understanding of the effects of greenhouse warming on life in the high latitudes.

"The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change," says Yager.

Under greenhouse warming, seasonally ice-covered Arctic regions will likely expand into areas that currently remain frozen year-round. Therefore, knowledge of the biological ecosystems that are adapted to these freeze-thaw cycles will become increasingly valuable.

Yager received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington last March at the conclusion of a five-year Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship for Global Change. Before coming to FSU this January, she worked at the University of Georgia as a University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Postdoctoral Fellow in developing carbon budget models.

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The Department is pleased to welcome Michaela Lupiani, who joined the staff in December 1996 as the new academic coordinator.
Jianguo Wang foined the staff in February to work with Dr. Allan Clarke on coupled ocean-atmosphere variability, and witDr. Wilton Sturges on coastal and open-ocan processes.

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Van Gorder balances
a keyboard in each hand

by Laura Young

The group Sight Unseen made a rare appearance a the 1995 QuincyFest, with Van Gorder on keyboards
An explosion rocks the air, and smoke billows toward the ceiling. Through the haze, onlookers see a man working his fingers over a keyboard. Is it a computer catastrophe? No, it's a flashback to Steve Van Gorder's first career-on the road as a rock musician.

Those who work with Steve now wouldn't be surprised to see him called to the scene of a major computer breakdown, but for his first six years after college, Steve traveled the southeastern US playing keyboards in the band BB Jam. They carried the songs of the 70s-Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, the Allman Brothers, Tom Petty, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, and, of course, the Beatles-to audiences in clubs, bars, and on the college circuit across six states.

About half of each set included original music, and in 1978 Sweet Bay Records in Tallahassee produced their album, "BB Jam." Two singles followed in 1979, "Majic Dancer" and "Good Night Maria." At age 30, though, Steve decided to call it quits. "When Mick Jagger was 30," Steve recalls thinking at the time, "he was making $12 million a year. I'm making $100 a week. This isn't going to go anywhere." As it turned out, when Steve unplugged his keyboard it stayed cold for a long time.

"I quit playing music altogether for 10 years," he says. "It wasn't that I consciously said 'I'm not gonna play music anymore.' It was just time to do something else. I got burned out. I guess I was lucky that I already had a master's degree."

With degrees in applied mathematics from FSU, Steve began working part-time for Prof. Doron Nof in the Department of Oceanography in 1982. Shortly after, Prof. Allan Clarke hired him for the complement of his time. Steve builds numerical and analytical computer models to calculate the predictions of Nof's and Clarke's theories, and he compares those theoretical results to observational data. Steve often creates graphics to express his work, even if he must write the graphics program himself.

"Each theory makes many simplifying assumptions," explains Steve, "but usually it is still so complex that we need the computer to help us see how well it works. If it isn't working, we must figure out why and how it needs to be changed. For the process to work well, I must interact closely with Allan or Doron, with lots of feedback both ways."

Clarke calls Steve "a clear, careful thinker and a great programmer. He has contributed enormously to my research, and it's been great fun sharing the excitement of scientific discovery with him."

"Steve combines an unusual talent of practice and theory," adds Nof. "He can do anything! Play music, fix computers, and solve equations."

Indeed, by 1991 Steve had a finger on the music world once again and had become a family man-with a wife Marian and two sons Eric and Justin. He now balances work, family, and music the way he once balanced school, family, and music.

Steve's first instrument was the trumpet, which he learned to play in the eighth grade at Florida High (Tallahassee) where music was a required course. He discovered then that he really liked to play, enough to learn a second instrument.

"I took organ lessons for a year back when I knew that I wasn't going to be able to play trumpet in a rock 'n roll band," Steve says.

When he left home, he borrowed his mother's Hammond organ-and kept it for 20 years! Five years ago, he started playing keyboard again. Every Thursday night, Steve heads over to a friend's house, just to jam with a group who call themselves Sight Unseen. The sound? Original crossover material in a mellow vein with overtones of rock and country. As the name suggests, though, you won't be able to sit in on these sessions. If you want to hear Steve perform, watch for clubs booking the band Roadhouse, and get set for an evening of the blues.

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Laura Lapham, a junior chemistry major, holds a collection bag removed by divers from an underwater meter. Her work is part of a study to measure the rate and amount of groundwater seeping into St. Joseph Bay.
Glynnis Bugna (left), a Ph.D. candidate in chemical oceanography, and Patricia Haase (right), a junior biology major, sample groundwater for jet fuel contamination at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. Their work is part of a study to determine if fuel will degrade in soil without oxygen.
Underwater view of a current meter collecting data in the Gulf of Mexico
At the Keys Marine Lab on Long Key, Florida, Ph.D. candidate Reide Corbett adds Iodine-131, sulfur hexafluoride, and potassium nitrate into a seepage injection well. These chemicals are being used as tracers to determine if sewage effluent is moving from the injection site (60­p;90 feet deep) into surface waters. Looking on are FSU Radiation Safety Officer Paul Burress (center), Prof. Bill Burnett, and master's candidate Kevin Dillon (right).


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  • Boehme, S. E., N. E. Blair, J. P. Chanton, and C. S. Martens. 1996. A mass balance of 13C and 12C in an organic-rich methane-producing marine sediment. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 60: 3835­p;3848.
  • Buesseler, K. O., J. E. Bauer, R. F. Chen, T. I. Eglinton, O. Gustafsson, W. M. Landing, K. Mopper, S. B. Moran, P. H. Santschi, and R. Vernon-Clark. 1996. An intercomparison of cross-flow filtration techniques for sampling marine colloids-overview and organic carbon results. Marine Chemistry, 55: 1­p;31.
  • Bugna, G. C., J. P. Chanton, J. E. Young, W. C. Burnett, and P. H. Cable. 1996. The importance of groundwater discharge to the methane budget of nearshore and continental shelf waters of the NE Gulf of Mexico. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 60: 4735­p;4746.
  • Burnett, W. C., D. R. Corbett, and M. Schultz. 1996. Analysis of actinide elements in soils and sediments. In: Proceedings, 12th Waste Testing and Quality Assurance Symposium, Environmental Protection Agency/American Chemical Society, July 23­p;26, 1996, Washington, D.C., 77­p;86.
  • Burnett, W. C., J. E. Cable, D. R. Corbett, and J. Chanton. 1996. Tracing groundwater flow into surface waters using natural 222Rn. In: Proceedings, The International Symposium on Groundwater Discharge in the Coastal Zone (ed. R. Buddemeier), Russian Academy of Sciences, Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ), July 6­p;10, 1996, Moscow, 22­p;28.
  • Burnett, W. C., M. K. Schultz, and C. D. Hull. 1996. Radionuclide flow during the conversion of phosphogypsum to ammonium sulfate. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 32: 33­p;52.
  • Burnett, W.C., J. E. Cable, D. Corbett, J. Chanton, and S. Clark. 1996. Tracing groundwater flow into surface waters using natural 222Rn. In: Groundwater discharge in the coastal zone: proceedings of an international symposium (ed. Buddemeir, R.W.). LOICA/R&S/96­p;8, 179 pp. LOICZ, Texel, The Netherlands, pages, 22-29. Abstract: Several investigators have suggested that nutrients, especially nitrogen species, may be delivered in ecologically-significant amounts to coastal environments and lakes via submarine groundwater discharge (SGD). This process may be particularly important in areas where groundwater has become contaminated with nutrients from septic systems. Delivery of other soluble contaminants (metals, radionuclides, etc.) via this process may also be important in some circumstances. We have been examining the flow of groundwater into surface waters both by direct measurements using "seepage meters" and by use of Radon as a natural tracer. We summarize here our findings in two environments: (1) an uncontaminated area of the coastal northeastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida; and (2) a freshwater lake (Par Pond) built as a cooling reservoir for two nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The studies in Par Pond were enhanced by the availability of independent water budget information. A simple box model approach was used to interpret our radon data in terms of inputs of groundwater to the lake-these inputs were shown to be of the same order as direct rainfall, the only other significant input to the lake. Our results for the Gulf coast area showed that coastal water 222Rn and CH4 inventories varied directly with measured groundwater seepage rates.
  • Cable, J. E., G. C. Bugna, W. C. Burnett, and J. P. Chanton. 1996. Application of 222Rn and CH4 for assessment of groundwater discharge to the coastal ocean. Limnology and Oceanography, 41, 1347­p;1353.
  • Cable, J., W. Burnett, J. Chanton, and G. A. Weatherly. 1996. Estimating groundwater discharge into the NE Gulf of Mexico using 222Rn. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 144: 591­p;604.
  • Chanton, J. P., G. J. Whiting, N. E. Blair, C. W. Lindau, P. K. Bollich. 1997. Methane Emission From Rice: stable isotopes, diurnal variations and CO2 exchange. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 11: 15­p;27.
  • Chanton, J. P., and G. J. Whiting. 1996. Methane Stable Isotopic distributions as indicators of gas transport mechanisms in emergent aquatic plants. Aquatic Botany, 54: 227­p;236.
  • Chanton, J. P., G. C. Bugna, and W. C. Burnett. 1996. Methane as an indicator of groundwater discharge: Examples from the NE Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay, Florida, USA. In: Groundwater discharge in the coastal zone: proceedings of an international symposium (ed. R. W. Buddemeir). LOICA/R&S/96­p;8, 179 pp. LOICZ, Texel, The Netherlands, pp. 29­p;37.
  • Chanton, J., G. Bugna, and W. Burnett. 1996. Groundwater discharge balances the methane budgets of nearshore and continental shelf waters. In: Proceedings, The International Symposium on Groundwater Discharge in the Coastal Zone (ed. R. Buddemeier), Russian Academy of Sciences, Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ), July 6­p;10, 1996, Moscow, 29­p;36.
  • Cherrier, J., J. E. Bauer, and E. R. M. Druffel. 1996. Utilization and turnover of labile dissolved organic matter by bacterial heterotrophs in eastern North Pacific surface waters. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 139: 267­p;279.
  • Guentzel, J. L., R. T. Powell, W. M. Landing, and R. P. Mason. 1996. Mercury associated with colloidal material in an estuarine and an open-ocean environment. Marine Chemistry, 55: 177­p;188. Abstract: We have used traditional filtration and tangential flow ultrafiltration to isolate mercury into 4 size fractions: particulate (>0.4 µm), high molecular weight (>10,000 Daltons), medium molecular weight (1,000-10,000 Daltons), and low molecular weight (<1,000 Daltons). Samples with varying salinities were collected from the Ochlockonee River/Estuary in January 1993 and 1994. A small set of open ocean samples was collected and processed during the 1993 Baseline Survey Expedition for Trace Contaminants in the Atlantic Ocean, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Concentrations of total dissolved Hg down the estuary ranged from 30-3 pM. Total dissolved Hg measurements from the IOC cruise ranged from 0.5-2.5 pM. Colloidal Hg (>1,000 Daltons) represented 35-87% of the total dissolved Hg within the estuary and 10-50% of the total dissolved Hg in the North Atlantic. Equilibrium Hg speciation modeling supports speculation that colloidal Hg is bound by thiol-type functional groups associated with the colloidal organic carbon.
  • Hsueh, Y., H.-J. Lie, and H. Ichikawa. 1996. On the branching of the Kuoshio west of Kyushu. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101: 3851­p;3857.
  • Hull, C. D., and W. C. Burnett. 1996. Radiochemistry of Florida phosphogypsum. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 32: 213­p;238.
  • Jones, W. B., and J. J. O'Brien. 1996. Pseudo-spectral methods and linear instabilities in reaction-diffusion fronts. Chaos, 6: 219­p;228.
  • Koskelo, M. J., W. C. Burnett, and P. H. Cable. 1996. An advanced analysis program for alpha-particle spectrometry. Radioactivity & Radiochemistry, 7(1): 18­p;27.
  • LaRock, P., J.-H. Hyun, S. Boutelle, W. C. Burnett, and C. D. Hull. 1996. Bacterial mobilization of polonium. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 60: 4321­p;4328.
  • Lebedev, I., and D. Nof. 1996. The drifting confluence zone. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 26: 2429­p;2448.
  • Lyons, W.B ., R. M. Lent, W. C. Burnett, P. Chin, W. M. Landing, W. H. Orem, and J. M. McArthur. 1996. Jellyfish Lake Palau: Regeneration of C, N, Si and P in anoxic marine lake sediments. Limnology and Oceanography, 41: 1394­p;1403.
  • Marcus, N. H. 1996. Ecological and evolutionary significance of resting eggs in marine copepods: Past, present, future studies. Hydrobiologia, 320: 141­p;152. Abstract: The occurrence of a resting egg phase in the life cycle of marine and freshwater planktonic copepods is well documented and receiving increasing attention by investigators. The species generally occur in coastal marine waters, freshwater ponds, and lakes in areas that undergo strong seasonal fluctuations, though examples have been reported for tropical and subtropical areas not subject to such extreme fluctuations. Typically, such species disappear from the water column for portions of the year but remain in the region as benthic resting eggs. Studies to date have focused on the conditions that promote the occurrence of resting eggs, the factors that affect their survival and hatching from sediments, the existence of egg banks in sediments, and the impact of resting eggs on plankton community structure. Benthic resting eggs of copepods include diapause eggs as well as subitaneous (non diapause) eggs that are quiescent due to conditions in the sediments. As with other groups of organisms, the resting egg phase is viewed as being critical for the perpetuation of species year after year, especially those that disappear from the water column for portions of the year. Some data indicate that eggs can survive for many years in sediments which would expand their influence to evolutionary time scales. This paper summarizes our understanding of embryonic dormancy in marine copepods.
  • Meyers, S. D., M. A. Johnson, M. Liu, J. J. O'Brien, and J. S. Spiesberger. 1996. Interdecadel variability in a numerical model of the northeast Pacific Ocean. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 26: 2635­p;2652.
  • Nof, D. 1996. Rotational turbidity flows and the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake. Deep-Sea Research, 43: 1143-1163.
  • Nof, D. 1996. What controls the origin of the Indonesian throughflow? Journal of Geophysical Research, 101: 12,301­p;12,314. Abstract: The question of which water enters the Indonesian Passages is a subject of outstanding debate. This article represents another attempt to address this issue using a new nonlinear model. The new model illustrates that the origin and composition of the Indonesian throughflow are determined by the structure of the opposing and retroflecting currents situated to the east of the passages. The nonlinear "layer-and-a-half model" is composed of an eastern and western basin (corresponding to the Pacific and Indian Ocean) connected via a channel representing the Indonesian passages. The channel cuts through a separating wall which runs from the northwest to the southeast; the retroflecting currents are taken to be zonal. Nonlinear solutions are constructed analytically by balancing the flow-force associated with the boundary currents flowing along the wall in the western Pacific. It is found that, without retroflection (that is, the entire flow along the western wall in the Pacific enters the passage), the throughflow must originate in both hemispheres, with 70% of the transport coming from the north and the remainder coming from the south. It is impossible for the flow to originate only from one side of the channel's entrance because, under such conditions, the momentum imparted by this flow on the fluid near the entrance to the channel cannot be balanced. When retroflection is present (that is, only a fraction of the western boundary currents system in the Pacific enters the channel) and the coastline is tilted, the above division of transports is dramatically altered. For some range of parameters the balance requires that fluid exit the channel rather than enter it. This is not the case, however, for the Indonesian throughflow where about 1 Sv must enter from the south and 11 Sv (±5 Sv) must enter from the north. Since opposing retroflecting currents flowing next to a solid wall containing no channels or gaps can be stationary only if their transports satisfy a given ratio, it is suggested that the fact that the retroflection is situated immediately to the east of the Indonesian Passages is not accidental. Namely, it is argued that the western boundary current system in the Pacific is stationary because it is situated next to the Indonesian Passages. In this particular position, the portions of the transports which do not allow satisfaction of the stationarity condition leak out into the Indian Ocean.
  • Nof, D., and T. Pichevin. 1996. The retroflection paradox. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 26: 2344­p;2358.
  • Pichevin, T., and D. Nof. 1996. The eddy cannon. Deep-Sea Research, 43: 1475­p;1507.
  • Pichevin, T., and D. Nof. 1997. The momentum imbalance paradox. Tellus, 49: 298­p;319.
  • Powell, R. T., W. M. Landing, and J. E. Bauer. 1996. Colloidal trace metals, organic carbon, and nitrogen in a southeastern U.S. estuary. Marine Chemistry, 55: 165­p;176.
  • Richards, T. S., and J. J. O'Brien. 1996. The effect of El Niño on U.S. landfalling hurricanes. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 77: 773­p;774.
  • Schultz, M. K., W. C. Burnett, K. G. W. Inn, J. W. L. Thomas, and Z.-C. Lin. 1996. Partitioning of radioactive elements in NIST natural matrix standards. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 101: 707­p;715.
  • Shchepetkin, A. F. and J. J. O'Brien. 1996. A physically consistent formulation of lateral friction in shallow water equation models. Monthly Weather Review, 124: 1285­p;1300.
  • Thistle, D., and G. D. F. Wilson. 1996. Is the HEBBLE isopod fauna hydrodynamically modified? Deep-Sea Research I, 43: 545­p;554.
  • Whiting, G. J., and J. P. Chanton. 1996. Control of diurnal pattern of methane emission from aquatic macrophytes by gas transport mechanisms. Aquatic Botany, 54: 237­p;253.

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    Jane Guentzel and Timour Radko
    have been selected as this year's
    Department of Oceanography
    Outstanding Graduate Students

    Jane Guentzel expects to receive her doctoral degree in chemical oceanography in April 1997. Her work at FSU with major professor Bill Landing has focused on the biogeochemistry of trace elements in aquatic systems and the influence of atmospheric deposition on the cycling of trace elements in these systems.

    Timour Radko already holds a Ph.D. in ocean hydro-thermodynamics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Russia. Timour expects to complete an additional doctoral degree this year at FSU in physical oceanography. His work with major professor Melvin Stern concerns theoretical studies in mesoscale jets and vortices.

    Each winner receives a $50 cash award and is nominated for membership in the FSU Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. They will be recognized at the society's annual banquet April 9.

    The 1997 Travel Award
    goes this year to master's candidate
    Michael Berry

    The Department will pay Michael's expenses to attend the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting May 4­p;8 in Miami Beach. Michael will present a poster on the ecological implications of a purple sulfur bacteria isolated from Caribbean Sea copepods, a collaborative work with biology professor R. H. Reeves and major professor Lita M. Proctor.

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    Heyward Mathews ('66) has continued to build and study artificial reefs for the 30 years since he wrote his master's thesis on the subject at FSU. With a doctorate in education from Nova University, Heyward has enjoyed a career as an oceanography instructor at St. Petersburg Junior College. His daughter Sara is now a junior at FSU.

    When Merrily M. Severance ('71) entered the department in 1968 (the year after it was organized), she was one of only five women students. Her career with the US Navy's environmental programs now spans 22 years. She has served as Director of Natural Resources for the Southwest Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Diego, California, and Deputy Director of Natural Resources for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Alexandria, Virginia. "I enjoy the diversity of the Navy's Natural Resource Program," says Merrily "-land management on the Navy's two million acres, fish and wildlife management, forestry, and outdoor recreation." Semi-retired since last December, she currently telecommutes two days a week from her home on an old Minnesota farm. She analyzes draft legislation for its impact on the Navy, rewrites Navy regulations, prepares presentations, writes answers for Congressional inquires-and enjoys retirement with her husband. "The great thing about telecommuting is that I get to do the parts of the job I like best and skip the meetings!"

    Herb Austin ('71)     is a Professor of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary, where he has taught for the past 19 years. He researches changes in the abundance of finfish, oysters, bluecrabs and other important species, focusing on the effects that changes in weather and climate have on them. A volunteer firefighter for 14 years, Herb has earned an AAS degree in fire science and public administration, is a certified arson ivestigator, and currently serves as fire chief for his local fire department. He has two sons in college now: Alexander, 19, and Conrad, 26, who has served with the US Marine Corps. Herb was married on July 19, 1996, to Susan Gregg.

    For the past five years, Kenneth White ('71) has served as a truant officer in Bronx, New York. Committed to secondary education, Kenneth taught high school science for 13 years and served as a high school dean for six years before devoting his time to getting truants to return to school or complete GED programs. He has obtained two additional master's degrees-one in education and one in administration-both from Iona College.

    George Horvath ('73) contributes to criminal investigations conducted by both the US Environmental Protection Agency (CID) and the Dallas Police Department. As "the only officer in the Dallas police force with a Ph.D. in chemistry," George can offer technical expertise as well as participate in raids. For 13 years he managed various EPA programs, including the Marine and Estuary Program, but he says he uses his scientific knowledge more now as a senior technical advisor to the CID and as a Dallas police lieutenant.
    During his career as a marine biologist, Thomas Iliffe ('73) has discovered over 100 new species of cave-dwelling marine and freshwater invertebrates, including two new orders, four new families, and 37 new genera. Sites for his current studies of ecology and evolution in marine caves include the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. After receiving his master's degree at FSU, Thomas earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Texas Medical Branch. He worked at the Bermuda Biological Station for 11 years before joining the faculty at Texas A&M University at Galveston in 1989. Thomas and his wife Yolanda Gonzales have a four-year-old son, Thomas.

    Mark Thiemens ('77) serves as chairman for the Department of Chemistry at the University of California­p;San Diego. After leaving FSU, Mark worked for three years at the Enrico Fermi Institute of Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. He won the Alexander von Humboldt Award, which afforded him the opportunity to conduct research at the University Göttingen in Germany during 1991­p;1992 and in 1993. Last year, Mark was made a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
    Last June, Allan Stoner ('79) took a position as Chief Scientist for the Behavioral Ecology Section at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service. His move north follows 12 years in the tropics and subtropics studying economically important species such as the queen conch, spiny lobster, and Nassau grouper. While working at NOAA's Caribbean Marine Research Center in the Bahamas, he developed the FORECAST (Fishery Oceangraphy and Recruitment in the Caribbean and SubTropics) program; later, he returned to Florida to head this program and join the faculty at Florida Institute of Technology, where he taught for four years. Allan serves as an editorial advisor for Marine Ecology Progess Series. He and his wife Marcia have a five-year-old daughter.

    David Uhlinger ('82)     is a senior scientist for the R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, where he is developing high-throughput screens for new anti-inflammatory drugs. David earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and was a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry at Emory University before he joined the Inflammation Drug Discovery Group at Johnson. He regularly participates in the leukocyte Gordon Conference and is developing an interest in robotics and bioinformatics.

    Kee Hyun Kim ('84) earned tenure last year at Chungnam National University, Taejon 305-764, Korea, where he has been on the faculty since 1986. He currently studies the role of particle flux in the cycling of reactive nuclides and the flux of uranium across the sediment-water interface in suboxic shelf sediment. Kee Hyun and his wife Hwasoon have two sons. June, 14, has won two gold medals in national swimming competitions. Nine-year-old Sun is a musician and a Black Belt in an old Korean martial arts called Hapkido.

    Now an environmental manager in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Steve Wolfe ('87) heads three research groups. The Toxicity Assessment Group undertakes investigations of toxicity issues that affect Florida's water quality, the Environmental Microbiology Group analyses water for various bacteria used as indicators of water quality, and the Environmental Assessment Group performs various "bench biology" analyses. The groups also sample for trace metals, particularly silver. Avid sailors, Steve and his wife of 22 years, Lori, have pulled their boat into their front yard to refit the craft for extended cruising.

    Last July John McCalpin ('90) made a career change after six years on the faculty of the University of Delaware. He began work as a supercomputing performance analyst in the Advanced Systems Division of Silicon Graphics Inc. His responsibilities center around understanding how the interaction of hardware, compilers, and applications affects the performance of SGI products and its customer's applications. His work brings him into contact with the designers of future generations of microprocessors and supercomputing systems. John and his wife Julie have a five-year-old son, Matthew, who is "well known as the computer wizard at his preschool." LCDR Paul Matthews ('91) works with the Navy at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa doing Meteorology/Oceanograhy (METOC) analysis and climatology in support of Worldwide Special Operations Forces. Paul was stationed in Guam for several years after leaving FSU, working as a typhoon forecaster (in one year making predictions for over 50 tropical storms in the Pacific and Indian oceans!) and supervising a METOC forecasting team. His orders place him next as a METOC officer on board the U.S.S. Wasp, an amphibious assault ship operated by the Navy and Marine Corps.

    Editor's Note: So many alumni wrote the Department during the past year that we have not had enough space to print all of the news yet. Future issues will contain even more updates about former students' interesting activities since they left the halls of FSU. Nevertheless, we continue to welcome letters from our alumni and are pleased to share your successes as space allows.

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    Andrea C. Mask (M.S. 12/96, O'Brien)

    "Wind-driven effects on the Yellow Sea Warm Current." Andrea has been renewed as an NRL Fellow and been readmitted to pursue a doctoral degree at FSU's Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies.

    Pavel S. Berloff (Ph.D. 12/96, Meacham)

    "Wind-driven circulation in closed basins." Pavel presently holds a post-doctoral position modeling the ocean general circulation with Jim McWilliams at the University of California­p;Los Angeles.

    Rodrigo H. Nunez (Ph.D 12/96, O'Brien)

    "A study of the ocean circulation off the coast of Chile"

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    David Thistle, Chair

    It looks like academic year 1996­p;97 will enter the record books as a year of continued success in all the Department's endeavors. The faculty are teaching their courses well and finding ways to stay funded. The graduate students are getting their research done and publishing at a surprising rate. The staff is making sure that everyone gets the service that they need. Amidst this steady achievement, there have been a few highlights.

    Jane Guentzel and Timour Radko were designated this year's Outstanding Graduate Students. Patricia Yager joined the Department as an assistant professor in January. She is the faculty member intended to link the Marine Chemistry and the Biological Oceanography groups. She has already made an impact by arranging a series of excellent seminars by visiting scholars.

    The construction of the Department's warehouse is almost complete. Everyone is looking forward to moving field gear out of OSB, and the Space Committee is already working on the question of the best use for the vacated space in 002. Both Dean Donald Foss and the new Vice President for Research, Dr. Susan Allen, visited the Department this spring. Each commented on the high quality of the Department. Dr. Foss went on to discuss issues of faculty evaluation. Dr. Allen led a lively question-and-answer session allowing the faculty to describe their programs and to learn of her plans for the Division of Research.

    We are pleased to be hosting two visiting scientists. Dr. H. Nishigaki from Oita University, Japan, is working with Dr. Nof on the problem of the interaction of the Oyashio Current with the Kuroshio Current. Dr. Nishigaki's visit is a direct result of Dr. Nof's visit to Japan last March as a Fellowship for Senior Scientists recipient of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Dr. Evgeny Kontar of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, is visiting FSU for one year to work with Dr. Bill Burnett on the extraction of radionuclides from natural waters, a project funded by the National Research Council.

    Finally, on the recommendation of the Chairperson Search Committee, Dean Foss appointed me to another three-year term as chair.

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