The University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies (CMS) is ranked among the top 10 marine education institutions in the United States. To continue advancing its record of excellence, CMS recently completed the first phase of a strategic planning process that has resulted in the formation of a new academic program area in the college.
"During the past year, with the help of our own faculty and staff, and a distinguished external advisory committee, we did a thorough reassessment of the first of our four academic program areas -- Applied Ocean Science -- and determined that we needed to make some changes in order to respond well to future student and environmental needs," says Dr. Carolyn A. Thoroughgood, dean of CMS. "During the same period, we also received a proposal from the Ocean Engineering Group within the University's College of Engineering to establish a joint program in coastal engineering, nearshore physical oceanography, and coastal geology, with the goal to create a much stronger coastal processes emphasis on campus," she notes. "As a result of these efforts, we have decided to create a new program in Physical Ocean Science and Engineering that will serve as the center for physics research and education at CMS."
Serving as interim director of the new program is Dr. Richard Garvine, Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies. Garvine has a distinguished record of teaching and scholarship at the University, where he has achieved national recognition for his discovery of the Delaware Coastal Current and other coastal circulation features. The Delaware Coastal Current flows out of Delaware Bay, takes a right turn, and then continues to hug the coast. Understanding the physics of this current has had practical application for search-and-rescue operations as well as helped explain the transport of marine debris to Delaware beaches.
Garvine received his B.S. in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace science from Princeton University. Prior to his career at Delaware, he served as a theoretical aerodynamicist at General Electric's Space Sciences Lab and then as a professor at the University of Connecticut's Marine Sciences Institute. He joined the faculty of the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies in 1977.
Garvine notes that the underlying theoretical basis for the Physical Ocean Science and Engineering Program is a strong emphasis on fluid dynamics and its application to coastal processes, including coastal engineering, nearshore processes, coastal physical oceanography, ocean acoustics, air-sea-sediment inter-action, and estuarine processes.
"The academic program is ideally suited for students with physics, mathematics, and engineering backgrounds. However, anyone with a strong science background should be qualified for the curriculum," Garvine says. "Our goal is to prepare students well for careers as physical oceanographers, coastal engineers, specialists in underwater acoustics, and other professions requiring a keen understanding of ocean physics."
Faculty from CMS will instruct students in the new program, as will joint faculty appointees from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University's College of Engineering. Students interested in the new program are urged to contact Dr. Garvine by e-mail at rgarvine@udel.edu.
The new Physical Ocean Science and Engineering Program joins three other academic program areas at CMS: Marine Biology-Biochemistry, Marine Policy, and Oceanography. For more information, visit the college's Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu.