Education

B.Sc. Carnegie-Mellon University, Physics
Ph.D. University of Rhode Island, Physical Oceanography

Research Interests

Ocean mixing and microstructure; the global water cycle, double-diffusive convection; relationships between small scale mixing processes and large-scale temperature and salinity distributions; the thermohaline circulation of the ocean; development of microprofiling instrumentation; autonomous profiling floats; the salinity distribution and its measurement; terrestrial rainfall prediction using ocean salinity; seismic oceanography (See Science Article)

Research Statement

Google Scholar Citations:         > 8,000,       h-index = 43
ISI/Web of Science Citations:   > 4,800,       h-index = 36

Interviews, blogs and talks

Scientia article: "Uncovering the connection between ocean salinity and terrestrial rainfall": http://www.scientia.global/dr-raymond-w-schmitt/   

Years of Living Dangerously Blog Post: Drought or Deluge:  https://medium.com/years-of-living/drought-or-deluge-f2ff5843ddb8#.jraddm4ij

Predicting Terrestrial Rainfall Using Ocean Salinities, interview on WCAI Living Lab, June 13, 2016. http://capeandislands.org/post/ocean-salinity-can-predict-rainfall-continent-away

May 2016 Press Release on Predicting Rainfall on Land from Ocean Salinity: http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/sahel-rainfall

"Predicting Minnesota Rainfall with North Atlantic Salinities"  Audio and slide presentation at AMS Fluid Dynamics Meeting, June15, 2015. https://ams.confex.com/ams/20Fluid/videogateway.cgi/id/30528?recordingid=30528

Regarding expanding Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic, (Vice News video, July 26, 2014): http://www.vice.com/vice-news/the-lake-that-burned-down-a-forest-full-512

On IPCC AR5 Report (Interview on NPR's "The Takeaway", September 27, 2013)
http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/the-takeaway-2013-09-27/

Salinity and Climate (Interview on WCAI's "The Point", July, 2013):
http://www.capeandislands.org/post/climate-changes-impact-ocean-chemistry-has-far-reaching-effects

Extreme Weather (Interview on WCAI's"The Point", May, 2012):
http://www.wgbh.org/programs/The-Point-298/episodes/Extreme-Weather-38667

Climate Change (Interview on WCAI's"The Point", February, 2007):
http://streams.wgbh.org/online/play.php?xml=cape/ThePoint/point_020707.xml&template=cainan

Webinar on Salinity and Climate Change for SPURS: http://cosee.umaine.edu/coseeos/spurs/webinars_02.htm

Affiliations

Ocean Studies Board, National Academy of Sciences, 2005-2007.
Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change, America's Climate Choices, National Academy of Sciences, 2009-2010.
Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Assessment Committee, National Academy of Sciences, 2011-2012.
NASA Salinity Science Team leader, 2011- present
NASA Advisory Council Earth Science Subcommittee 2014-2017

Awards

J. S. Guggenheim Fellow, 1997-1998.
Fellow, American Geophysical Union
Van Allen Clark Sr. Chair for Excellence in Oceanography