About The Department
The Oceanography Department was founded in 1971 and now has over 110 members including 20 full-time faculty, with many additional joint, cross and adjunct appointments. We are a unique department in the Faculty of Science at Dalhousie University, since our primary emphasis is in graduate education, research and in post-doctoral training. Within Canada we are also unique in being the only dedicated department that includes all primary areas in oceanography - physical, biological, chemical and geological - similar to the much larger oceanographic institutes in other countries. But since we are much smaller than these other institutions, we can still offer an environment that facilitates wide interaction and encourages an inter-disciplinary approach to discovery, understanding and prediction of the oceans and their critical importance to our lives on Planet Earth.
The members of our department (faculty, students and staff) represent our most important resource and are the reason why we are recognized as a world-class centre in oceanographic education and research. A majority of our faculty hold or have held prestigious appointments, such as Killam and Canadian Research Chairs, NSERC University Faculty Awards, NSERC Industrial Research Chairs and Fellowships from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. A number also hold medals and Fellowships from scientific societies and serve as editors or associate editors on international scientific journals. In 2011 we welcomed Professor Doug Wallace as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology, one of only 19 CERC's across the country.
Many of our 42 graduate students and 30 research fellows also hold prestigious scholarships or fellowships. Recognizing the international nature of oceanography, nearly half come from countries outside Canada, providing a truly international flavour to our department. Most of our graduates continue with research careers both in Canada and around the globe.
Our international prominence is reflected in past and current housing of the Canadian offices of large international projects, including the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), and the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS). In the 1990s we housed the Open Production Enhancement Network (OPEN), one of the first Networks of Centers for Excellence. More recently we housed the CFI- and CFCAS-funded Center for Marine Environmental Prediction (CMEP), which focused on a predictive understanding of changes in the marine environment, and currently host the marine section of the Canadian Wildlife Foundation. Current large projects headquartered in the Department of Oceanography include Global Ocean-Atmosphere Prediction and Predictability (GOAPP), which brings together ocean and atmospheric researchers from across Canada to improve forecasts of the ocean and atmosphere. We are also prominent participants in the $160 million Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), which aims to conduct the world's most comprehensive and revolutionary examination of marine life and ocean conditions, and how they are changing as the earth warms.
Dalhousie Oceanography is an exciting place to work and study, where you can participate in world-wide and world-class interdisciplinary research projects and benefit from close interactions with some of the best scientists in their fields. I invite you to learn more about us.
Marlon R. Lewis
Professor and Chair