Nowacek Tracking Right Whales Photo The Department of Oceanography is a research-oriented, graduate-only department within the College of Arts and Sciences. We are located in the Oceanography and Statistics building on the main FSU campus in Tallahassee, Florida. Our 19 faculty members offer specialized graduate courses and more general undergraduate courses in oceanography. They also guide the research of our students while conducting their own. The department is of a size that it forms a cohesive group, with an important sense of camaraderie amongst graduate students and faculty. The interdisciplinary nature of oceanography leads to intra- and interdepartmental approaches to research and instruction.

Latest Research

Dr. Doug Nowacek was recently quoted in The Chronical of Higher Education for an article entitled , "Marine Researchers Track an Elusive Endangered Whale" by Colin Woodward. The article discusses how research is helping to save the endangered Right Whale.

What is Oceanography?

Oceanography is in some sense a misnomer. The word itself tempts one into thinking that oceanography represents a single well-defined discipline, with traditions and methods that stand apart from those of the more classical sciences. In reality, oceanography consists of the application of the basic disciplines of biology, chemistry, geology, math, and physics to the seas.

For example, biological oceanographers (among other things) attempt to unravel the ecology of the ocean. This task is complicated by the enormous variety of niches contained within the marine environment (the rocky intertidal to the deep open ocean) and the broad spectrum of ocean inhabitants (zooplankton to blue whales). One might find a chemical oceanographer asking if ocean life is controlled by the limited amounts of metals in seawater, rather than by nutrients. Geological oceanographers are the earth's real historians. By studying the structure and composition of the ocean floor, they try to reconstruct ocean and atmospheric conditions in the distant past. Their work tells us about possible earth climates (a subject of considerable modern importance). Physical oceanographers try to understand water circulation and structure, by observation, laboratory experimentation, and modeling.

Each type of oceanography requires training in the classical disciplines in addition to ocean studies, making oceanography a broad and diverse endeavor. All of us are therefore required to cross the boundaries of our own specialties and to graze a bit on the far side of the fence. Such is the nature of oceanography, and part of what makes it fun.

Oceanography Building Photo Facilities

Located in the Oceanography and Statistics Building on Florida State University's main campus in Tallahassee, the Department of Oceanography, together with other FSU units, offers extensive facilities necessary for graduate education and quality scientific research.