[OANNES Foro] oceanographers are now riding a wave of career growth and recognition

[raul sanchez]

Nature 456, 540-541 (26 November 2008) | doi:10.1038/nj7221-540a


Sea of Dreams
Quirin Schiermeier1

Quirin Schiermeier is Nature's Germany correspondent.
To discuss this article, contact the editor

They may have first been lured by the romance of underwater discovery, but oceanographers are now riding a wave of career growth and recognition, says Quirin Schiermeier.

As a boy, Martin Visbeck dreamt of becoming a ship's captain. He soon realized that modern seafaring lacked the romantic adventure he aspired to, but his love for the oceans endured. After initially studying meteorology, he soon switched to oceanography, earning his PhD in 1993 from the University of Kiel in Germany. Now, as chairman of the physical oceanography research unit at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, he has been a chief scientist on several research cruises, still striving to live out that boyhood dream.


C. CHARETTE

James Yoder: "They have such good quantitative and analytical skills, they can find jobs in many areas outside academic science." 
Such career tracks, starting in fields such as physics or meteorology, are not unusual in oceanography. Although the oceans have been the subject of intense scientific interest for centuries, oceanography gained recognition as an independent scientific discipline only a couple of decades ago. In recent years, oceanographers' skills and expertise have been increasingly sought after.

"The global economy needs us," says Rachel Mills, a senior researcher at the National Oceanography Centre (NOCS) in Southampton, UK. "From the science of climate change to technical solutions for carbon-dioxide sequestration, and from oil exploration to maritime law and ocean policy, there are many areas where oceanographers' skills are being requested."

To the general public, oceanographers have an image as explorers of a fascinating, alien underwater landscape. In 1977, for example, they discovered hydrothermal vents in the Pacific that sustained bizarre life forms. This was hailed as a spectacular triumph and the findings became a popular topic of science books and documentaries. Oceanographic achievements have as yet never piqued the interest of Nobel prize committees and Visbeck fears they will not do so any time soon. Yet these stereotypes of a romantic field of underwater exploration belie the rigorousness of the science.


M. JONES/NOCS

The RRS James Cook in Antigua

Take physical oceanography, for example: studies of oceanic motions, from small-scale mixing processes to basin-wide circulation patterns. This requires a thorough understanding of fluid mechanics and the laws of thermodynamics. Likewise, ocean biogeochemistry — studies of the way carbon and nutrient cycles, ocean chemistry, food chains and ecosystems respond to global warming — requires a great deal of expertise in molecular biology and organic and inorganic chemistry.

Top of pagePhysicists and engineers welcome
"People often think that what we're doing is all about cruising, diving and watching animals," says Visbeck. "Students are then often surprised to find out how much physics and mathematics we actually use."

Ocean modellers — whose work involves modelling flows, internal tides, mixing processes and ocean circulation — often prefer mathematically inclined PhD students with a physics or engineering background to students trained in less formalized disciplines such as environmental sciences or geography.

Since opening in 1998, the NOCS School of Ocean and Earth Science has produced more than 250 PhDs, the vast majority of whom have found jobs, according to the centre. The largest group (37%) has stayed in academic research, about half still in Britain.

"People knew extraordinarily little about the oceans until just a few decades ago, so it's a field where you can really still make a contribution," says Mills. "People thought I was mad when I left chemistry in favour of oceanography, but I found this new field just so much more exciting."

Hendrik van Aken, a physical oceanographer at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research on the Friesian island of Texel, says his teachers were sceptical when he entered the field in the 1970s. "All my professors would tell me, 'Don't do it, there are no jobs'," he says.


M. COOPER

NOCS students work on the RV Callista.
Their fears were groundless. Throughout his academic career, van Aken has seen his research grow in importance to environmental and coastal planners in the Netherlands. He investigates the characteristics of silt transport into the Wadden Sea from the coasts of the Dutch North Sea. Such studies of sediment transport, initially intended as basic research, often prove valuable for more practical projects — for example, the ongoing Rotterdam harbour enlargement. And the relevance of oceanographic work to exploration and engineering activities has created research opportunities. Over the years, many of his former students and postdocs have been recruited into coastal engineering and environmental-management departments, in the Netherlands and around the world, he says.

Top of pageDip your toes in the water
During the past 20 years, for example, van Aken's former student Edward Kleverlaan has dabbled in a multitude of oceanography areas. His career path epitomizes the potential breadth of opportunities afforded to those with oceanography training. After receiving his master's degree in oceanography, he was recruited by Shell UK to do surveys in the North Sea; he then returned to the Netherlands to coordinate coastal protection projects funded by the Dutch ministry of transport and water management. In 1990 he moved to Australia, where he worked as a scientific research officer with the government of Queensland, and later with the federal government of Australia as an expert on climate change, water quality and marine conservation. He was also involved in managing the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Kleverlaan, now a technical officer with the United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, has met many young oceanographers in various professions. "They're with consulting firms, with the geological surveys, in drilling technology development, mapping, remote sensing — just everywhere," he says.


D. TEAGLE/NOCS

Buoyant prospects: Rachel Mills (top), Martin Visbeck.
As the importance of oceans grows in political and environmental arenas, many more oceanographers are likely to pursue careers at government agencies and international organizations, says Kleverlaan. And it's not only obvious employers such as the IMO that need them. About a third of people with doctorates from the NOCS find employment at government agencies such as the official British weather forecaster, the Met Office.

Most oceanographers who leave academia remain committed to careers in the environmental sector. However, the biggest job boom has been sparked by growing demand in the oil-exploration industry. Companies such as Shell have in recent years been desperate for exploration experts willing to spend extended time on drilling ships, says Mills. "It's definitely not everybody's taste, but at 20 to 30 many are still flexible enough and happy to move around," she says. A few years of ship-based work — whether assisting with test drilling, exploration or seismic studies — can be a stepping stone to other jobs in the business; field- or office-based, up to senior management.

However, in some regions, keen interest in academic careers has contributed to a bottleneck. Even more than in Europe, young oceanographers trained at US institutions tend to think of academia first when it comes to career planning. This is causing concern at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, says James Yoder, vice-president for academic programmes. The WHOI operates a prestigious marine-sciences graduate programme in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; it hosts some 70 postdocs at any time. Interest has notably increased during the past decade or so, says Yoder, but the number of permanent positions available at US universities and oceanographic institutions has not.

The uncertain economic outlook adds to fears of an increasingly tight bottleneck. The WHOI, although a private corporation, depends on federal research dollars. The same is true of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and university departments in places such as Rhode Island, Florida, Texas and Oregon. The US National Science Foundation has already cut back its Antarctic science programme because of high fuel prices. During his campaign, president-elect Barack Obama pledged to increase science budgets — but it's still early days.

Regardless of how budgets will develop, Yoder encourages PhD students and postdocs to think more broadly. At the WHOI's yearly career forums, invited speakers from private companies, consulting firms, publishing houses and other sectors provide first-hand information about emerging job opportunities in their respective beats. "Oceanographers have such good quantitative and analytical skills, they can find jobs in many areas outside the narrow field of academic science," he says. "We just need to make them aware of the many opportunities that exist out there."

For marine scientists such as Visbeck, the allure of the oceans curtails any major concerns about funding and job prospects. Just 10% of oceanographers trained at the NOCS, for example, have in the past ten years opted for careers completely outside the field. With global energy in transition, niche areas such as tidal energy and offshore wind parks are likely to proliferate, offering opportunities to the next generation. "There may not be a fixed job outline for oceanographers," says Visbeck, "but it's certainly no longer necessary to discourage young scientists from choosing the field."