Abbott, Mark R.

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From the President: Shifting WatersAbbott, M.R. 2013. From the President: Shifting waters. Oceanography 26(1):7, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.10.10.5670/oceanog.2013.10The Oceanography SocietyVersion of Recordhttp://cdss.library.oregonstate.edu/sa-termsofuseCITATIONAbbott, M.R. 2013. From the President: Shifting waters. Oceanography 26(1):7, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.10.  DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.10COPYRIGHT This article has been published in Oceanography, Volume 26, Number 1, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2013 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: info@tos.org or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA.OceanographyTHE OFFICIAl MAGAzINE OF THE OCEANOGRAPHY SOCIETYDOwNlOADED FROM HTTP://www.TOS.ORG/OCEANOGRAPHYOceanography  |  March 2013 7Shifting Watersf r o M  t h e  P r e S i d e n tIt is an honor to serve as your president of The Oceanography Society, and it is humbling to follow in the footsteps of our past presidents. I want to thank especially Mike Roman and Carolyn Thoroughgood who have ably served TOS recently and who have guided me through “learning the ropes.” However, any missteps are my responsibility!Five years ago, Mel Briscoe asked me to write an article on my thoughts about the future of our science in a special issue of Oceanography (Abbott, 2008). Under the title “Oceanography in 2028,” I discussed the forces of change affecting our field and how they might impact our research and educational programs as well as our institutions. Writing just before the financial crisis of 2008, I could foresee increasing budget pressures in many countries, though I did not anticipate the depth and extent of the challenges posed by large national debt and slow economic growth. One of the impacts on oceanography in the United States has been a declining success rate for National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals (now a bit below 30%, although many myths were dispelled in a recent article by Duce et al., 2012). And, as noted by David Conover, director of the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences, facilities costs now consume about 50% of the his division’s budget. Our public research uni-versities continue to face budget reductions from state govern-ments (National Science Board, 2012), yet are being asked to do more in science/technology/engineering/mathematics (STEM) education and economic development. However, new opportunities have arisen in the last five years. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are emerging in both the private sector and through university consortia, although there remain fundamental issues regarding how to make money and how to certify student performance. The Schmidt Ocean Institute (http://www.schmidtocean.org) is now operating a highly capable vessel in support of ocean research. Sensor networks, such as those being deployed by the Ocean Observatories Initiative (http://www.oceanobservatories.org), will provide enormous new data sets in near-real time. The NSF Directorate for Geosciences is developing the EarthCube concept (http://earthcube.ning.com) that will build new lev-els of cyberinfrastructure to support the Earth science and education community.Some of these forces could profoundly impact oceanogra-phy, altering how we teach and how we conduct our research. Many of our institutions have begun this transformation. For example, having started as Oregon State’s Department of Oceanography over 50 years ago, my home base is now the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, encom-passing both undergraduate and graduate education and research. Other institutions are exploring new pathways as well. Beyond these forces of budgets, technology, and organiza-tion, oceanography is now being pursued against a larger back-drop of Earth system science. But as Raupach (2012) discusses, we now have an even more profound shift as our science will need to engage in conversations about human values and public policy regarding the future of our planet. I look forward to the next two years as president of TOS, and I hope our community will have a lively and produc-tive set of discussions regarding these issues and the field of oceanography. Buckle up! Sincerely, Mark R. Abbott, TOS PresidentreferenceSAbbott, M.R. 2008. Oceanography in 2028. Oceanography 21(3):74–81, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2008.38.Duce, R.A., K.J. Benoit-Bird, J. Ortiz, R.A. Woodgate, P. Bontempi, M. Delaney, S.D. Gaines, S. Harper, B. Jones, and L.D. White. 2012. Myths in funding  ocean research at the National Science Foundation. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 93:533–534, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012EO510001.National Science Board. 2012. Diminishing Funding and Rising Expectations: Trends and Challenges for Public Research Universities. NSB 12-45,  http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/companion2/files/nsb1245.pdfRauspach, M.R. 2012. Earth-system science at a crossroads. Global Change 79:22–25, http://www.igbp.net/news/features/features/ earthsystemscienceatacrossroads.5.19b40be31390c033ede80001358.html.

From the President : Shifting waters

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From the President : Shifting waters

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