Kerry Naish named inaugural director of Marine Biology

In recent years, faculty, staff, and students from across the College of the Environment have played a vital role in discussing, shaping, and ultimately creating a new Marine Biology major. This exciting new offering from UW Environment will launch during the autumn quarter of 2018. “I’m impressed that the framers of this major could simultaneously create something that is stand-alone, and something that can — and will — be used as a pathway to discover over majors, including Oceanography, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, and perhaps event Biology and Psychology,” Lisa Graumlich, dean of the College of the Environment, said.

Policy pivot: A new emphasis on restoration to protect Puget Sound

The Qwuloolt project, north of Everett, sought to restore the mouth of the Snohomish River — key salmon habitat — by breaching dikes that had for years allowed the area to be used as farmland. The marsh is seen here in 2016.

In a growing region, protecting Puget Sound is about more than recovering certain species of threatened and endangered animals with marine protected areas. It’s also about protecting the livelihoods and diverse cultures of the people who live there and balancing their needs with the needs of the natural world. A team of University of Washington researchers and their collaborators tackled this quandary in a study spanning years and miles, across Puget Sound’s rural towns and urban centers.

UW professor Cecilia Bitz elected American Geophysical Union fellow

Cecilia M. Bitz, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist, has been elected as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. The UW honoree is among 62 new 2018 fellows from 21 countries.The scientific group recognizes only one in 1,000 members each year for major scientific work and sustained impact. Bitz is a UW professor in the atmospheric sciences department and director of the Program on Climate Change.

Diving robots find Antarctic winter seas exhale surprising amounts of carbon dioxide

UW's Stephen Riser (left) drops a float into the Southern Ocean during a 2016/17 cruise.

More than 100 oceanic floats are now diving and drifting in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica during the peak of winter there. These instruments are gathering data from a place and season that’s poorly studied, despite its important role in regulating the global climate. A new study from the University of Washington, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Princeton University and several other oceanographic institutions uses data gathered by the floating drones over past winters to learn how much carbon dioxide is transferred by the surrounding seas.

John Horne named director of JISAO

John Horne, director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO)

UW’s College of the Environment is pleased to announce that John Horne has been named director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) for a three-year term, effective August 1, 2018. Horne is a professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and a fisheries biologist who uses acoustical techniques to understand spatial structures, interactions and abundances of aquatic communities, which are used to inform resource management.