Parker MacCready, professor at the School of Oceanography, finished up a stint as a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research last fall, utilizing the newest technology to advance the study of ocean acidification and other ocean sciences. Microsoft Research has the express goal of collaborating “with the world’s top researchers to develop technologies that help solve global challenges.” Ocean acidification is a phenomenon that will adversely affect the Puget Sound region, thus Parker spent four months partnering with the Earth, Energy, and Environment section of Microsoft Research Connections.
Read more »Oceanography director helps bring major private funding to UW
The Washington Research Foundation (WRF), a private nonprofit group that funds research and initiatives to commercialize innovations in the state, is making a $30 million grant to University of Washington efforts in data science, clean energy, protein design, and neuroengineering. The grant will help to attract and retain top tier faculty and post-doctoral researchers who work across multiple disciplines, with an emphasis on entrepreneurial researchers adept at advancing scientific discoveries from laboratory to society.
Read more »Puget Sound’s rich waters supplied by deep, turbulent canyon
The headwaters for Puget Sound’s famously rich waters lie far below the surface, in a submarine canyon that draws nutrient-rich water up from the deep ocean. New measurements may explain how the Pacific Northwest’s inland waters are able to support so many shellfish, salmon runs and even the occasional pod of whales.University of Washington oceanographers made the first detailed measurements at the headwater’s source, a submarine canyon offshore from the strait that separates the U.S.
Read more »Carbon dioxide in the tropical Pacific Ocean is increasing faster than expected
Research published by scientists at the College of the Environment Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean and NOAA has yielded new findings in the role that the tropical Pacific plays in regulating global CO2. The ocean acts both a source and sink for atmospheric CO2, and the tropical Pacific has always had a disproportionately large influence on that interplay.
Read more »Tethered robots tested for Internet-connected ocean observatory
The University of Washington this fall will complete installation of a massive digital ocean observatory. Dozens of instruments will connect to power and Internet cables on the seafloor, but the observatory also includes a new generation of ocean explorers: robots that will zoom up and down through almost two miles of ocean to monitor the water conditions and marine life above.
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