An Introduction to the Department

The Department of Oceanography is located on the University of Hawaii's largest campus (about 20,000 students), overlooking Waikiki and downtown Honolulu, the State Capitol and business and cultural center. As a designated "area of excellence", the marine and earth sciences enjoy strong support at the State and University levels. This has led to rapid expansion of faculty, facilities, and programs over the past two decades, and the establishment of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) in 1988. SOEST integrates the Departments of Oceanography, Geology and Geophysics, Meteorology, and Ocean and Resources Engineering, the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, the Sea Grant and Space Grant Programs, the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, the International Pacific Research Center, and the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research. With a combined faculty and staff of almost 700 and an annual operating budget in excess of $100 million, SOEST is a leading institution of multidisciplinary research and education on the ocean, earth, and atmosphere.

Including Cooperating and Affiliate members, 70 Graduate Faculty teach and advise graduate students in the Oceanography field of study. The collective research expertise and programs of these faculty provide a broad diversity of potential projects and employment opportunities for students. Department faculty are loosely organized into three Divisions — Physical Oceanography, Marine Geology and Geochemistry (MGGD), and Biological Oceanography — which coordinate educational and research programs for subdisciplines, maintain shared equipment, and provide secretarial and other services (e.g., student access to PCs and workstations) through division offices. Research activities and publications of the Oceanography Faculty are described on other pages of this web site. Prospective students are encouraged to contact individual faculty for further details.

Facilities

SOEST operates two ocean-going research vessels from its marine operations center at Honolulu Harbor. These are the R/V Kai'imikai-O-Kanaloa and the R/V Kilo Moana. Smaller nearshore boats are also available. The Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory operates two research submersibles, the Pisces IV and Pisces V (2,000 meters), and the ROV RCV-150 (914 m). The School maintains machine, electronics, and engineering shops, graphics, publication, and other support facilities.

The SOEST computing facilities are based on a growing network of over 1,400 workstations and personal computers. Some workstations are public and accessible to students. Graphic peripherals include black-and-white and color laser printers, and color poster printers. The SOEST computers are interconnected through a 1000 Mbps local area network, itself connected to a 1000 Mbps campus-wide network and to a 500 Mbps link to U.S. Internet. We also have multiple links connecting us to INternet2 as well as various other resources such as lambdarail through which various Universities and super-computers are accessible. SOEST also operates receiving systems for satellite images, for polar orbiting satellites (AVHRR, SeaWifs, J-ERS, ERS) and for geostationary satellites (GOES, GMS).

Precision instruments include stable isotope and isotope-ratio-monitoring mass spectrometers; a high speed multi-laser sorting flow cytometer and an analytical flow cytometer; CHN analyzers; gas and high-pressure liquid chromatographs; SEM and STEM electron microscopes with an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence micro-elemental analyzer; an electron microprobe; an indirectly-coupled, plasma/atomic emission spectrometer; atomic absorption system with graphite atomizer; liquid scintillation counters, spectrometers, and nutrient autoanalyzers.

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