Rocky Geyer

Rocky Geyer is a Senior Scientist and Chair of the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the former director of WHOI’s Rinehart Coastal Research Center. He earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Dartmouth College and master’s and doctoral degrees in physical oceanography from the University of Washington. Geyer was a sailor before he was a scientist, and he was long baffled by the complex swirls of currents that often wrecked havoc with his attempts at precision navigation. He had the good fortune to turn this fascination into a vocation, and has subsequently worked in many estuarine and coastal environments, including the Amazon outflow, the Po River outflow in Italy, the fjords and estuaries of the Pacific Northwest, the tidal channels of New England and Singapore, the Hudson River, the Eel River plume in northern California, and the western Gulf of Maine. Geyer’s research includes a blend of observational process-studies and numerical modeling, directed both at basic research questions and applied problems of societal concern, such as harmful algal blooms and contaminant transport. Geyer has served on the National Research Council’s Panel on Environmental Processes: Source, Fate and Transport, and is a member of the Ocean Studies Board.