Welcome to WHOI's Director of Research Website

View from Below
The autonomous underwater vehicle REMUS is released in Belize during a pilot study of the effect of ocean currents on fish larvae spawned on coral reefs.  Similar population studies have been done near Papua New Guinea, and scientists hope to expand their efforts using the latest technology. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Off It Goes!
WHOI engineer Hanumant Singh (center) helps deploy the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) SeaBED in the Aegean Sea during recent archaeological studies. Singh took part in the Project PHAEDRA 2006 expedition to explore an ancient shipwreck. (Photo by Matthew Barton, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Over the Side and Under the Ice
A big red flotation sphere is deployed into Hudson Strait to collect the first detailed measurements of water flowing out of icy Hudson Strait into the North Atlantic. Changes in this outflow can have impacts on the climate of the North Atlantic region. (Photo by Fiamma Straneo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Home Port
An aerial view of the village of Woods Hole, with the Institution dock facilities at the center. WHOI research vessels Knorr, Oceanus, and Atlantis are home, a rare occurrence. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Thumbs Down
Leonidas Byckjovas directs the unloading of a CTD (conductivity/temperature/depth) rosette from the deck of R/V Oceanus at the WHOI dock. The instrument collects water samples at various depths for climate change and other studies. ) (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

It's All in the Image
Marine biologist Michael Moore and CT Technician Julie Arruda discuss CT images of a marine mammal with students. A new necropsy and scanner facility enhance the team's ability to handle wide range of marine animals. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Muddy Mysteries
MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Jon Woodruff (left) and Senior Scientist Don Anderson examine a sediment core sample from the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts for a study using coastal flood deposits to reconstruct how hurricane activity has varied in response to climate change. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Jars of Jellies
Biologist Larry Madin studies jellies, collected at sea and preserved in jars, in his lab. Gelatinous zooplankton (jellyfish to most of us), are a major link in the oceanic food chain, though much remains unknown about them. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Bring 'Em Home
Shipboard science services technician Ken Feldman (left) and ordinary seaman Patrick Neumann work to deploy a sea anchor as part of the process of "recovering" Alvin (bringing it back onto the ship). The Alvin submersible was called to return early to the research vessel Atlantis due to strong winds and building seas. (Photo by Patrick Ryan Jackson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Sentry on the Horizon
Engineer Rod Catanach steadies the Sentry autonomous underwater vehicle as it is lowered for tests off the WHOI dock in November 2007. Sentry is a robot built for exploring the deep ocean; it will often be used to complement Alvin by surveying large swaths of ocean floor to determine the best spots for close-up exploration. The AUV is slated to join the National Deep Submergence Facility in 2008. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Magic Cool Bus
WHOI engineer John Kemp, head of deck operations during the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition, supervises Camper’s deployment off the fantail of Oden. The towed vehicle was mobilized to find  the autonomous underwater vehicle Jaguar, which was somewhere under the ice on a testing dive. Jaguar and its twin Puma are today finishing another expedition into uncharted waters. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Surf's Down
MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Alex Apotsos (front), research assistant Levi Gorrell, and scientist Mike Forte (with hat) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, survey changes in beach shape in Duck, N.C., as part of a study to better understand factors controlling beach erosion and accretion. (Photo by Britt Raubenheimer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Putting History on Ice
WHOI paleoceanographer Konrad Hughen (left) and WHOI research associate Daniel Montlucon pour liquid nitrogen into sediments retrieved from the seafloor to freeze and preserve them. Sediments accumulate over time in layers on the seafloor, and they contain fossil shells of surface-dwelling microscopic marine animals. The shells incorporate radiocarbon and other isotopes from seawater that existed when the animals lived, and hence provide a chronological record of past ocean conditions. (Photo by Tim Eglinton, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Tastes Great, Less Filling
One copepod—Euchaeta norvegica—gobbles up another—Calanus finmarchicus (clear and sticking out of the top of Euchaeta)—after being scooped out of New England waters. Both zooplankton were captured in a "bongo" net as researchers sampled the waters for the food that attracts so many northern right whales to the region. Samples of Calanus are collected for isotope analysis (different populations have slightly different chemical signatures) so that researchers can eventually figure out where the whales are feeding. (Photo by Melissa Patrician, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Where Will It Go?
Summer Student Fellow Tomasso Ascarelli (from the University of Rome) and WHOI Senior Scientist Jack Whitehead (foreground right) examine the flow of dye in a fluid dynamics experiment. The blue fluid—dyed salt water—was injected onto a sloping white bottom in the rotating tank in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Working with Whitehead and WHOI Associate Scientist Claudia Cenedese (not pictured), Ascarelli studied the behavior of density currents on sloping surfaces in the tank in order to better understand the large density currents (sometimes called "streamtubes" or "cataracts") in the real ocean. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Awash
Al Plueddemann and Glen Gawarkiewicz prepare to launch REMUS, an autonomous underwater vehicle, from R/V Tioga during a survey in shallow water off Chatham, Mass., in early 2006. (Photo by Christopher Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The Beat Goes On
Bill Jenkins (left) is the third director of the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (NOSAMS) facility, established in 1989 at WHOI to provide radiocarbon analysis (principally carbon-14 dating) of marine sediments and the organic and inorganic compounds that reside in the water. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Clamping Down
Technicians, scientists, and crew all chip in to put davit clamps onto the core barrel of the long core system on the research vessel Knorr in September 2007. The clamps are used to raise the barrel back onto the ship after deployment to the seafloor. The crew includes (from left): senior research specialist Jim Broda (in the red hat), senior research assistant Ellen Roosen, Chris Moser (Oregon State University, blue hat), and engineering assistant Larry Costello (pushing against the core barrel). (Photo by Alexander Dorsk, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Drilling of a Different Sort
John Kemp (standing) with Kris Newhall prepare to drill a hole in the ice in the Beaufort Sea to test ice-melting equipment used to extract instruments frozen in the ice. Neil Jollymore, with rifle, is on polar bear watch whenever a team leaves the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St Laurent. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

All Ears
To learn about marine mammal hearing, researchers use the new WHOI necropsy and CT scan facility to reveal the internal anatomy of ears. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

View from the Top
WHOI geochemist Ken Sims and climber Dennis Jackson overlooking Masaya volcano in Nicaragua. By gathering gas samples from volcanoes worldwide, Sims is exploring how Earth is evolving and how volcanic gases cause climate changes that may have led to the extinction of dinosaurs. (Photo by Amy Nevala, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Daily Dose of Vitamins
Graduate student Erin Bertrand (right) and assistant scientist Mak Saito, biogeochemists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Insitution, have found evidence that B12, an essential vitamin for people, also plays a critical role in ocean food web.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Staying On Top of His Work
Senior engineering assistant Jeff Lord of the WHOI Upper Ocean Processes Group adjusts and services the instruments atop a deep-ocean moored buoy on October 27, 2007. The research vessel Ronald H. Brown looms in the distance. Working off the Pacific coast of Chile, the research team has been examining the exchange of heat, moisture, and momentum between the ocean and atmosphere, while also providing data for tsunami detection. (Photo by Sean P. Whelan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Sister Ships
R/V Oceanus (foreground), operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and R/V Endeavor, operated by the University of Rhode Island, await loading at WHOI's Iselin Pier. The third sister ship is the R/V Wecoma, operated by Oregon State University. (Photo by Terrence M. Rioux, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)