Oceanographer Dennis J. McGillicuddy, Jr. receives 34th annual Rosens...( Virginia Key Fla.-- The University o...)

Virginia Key, Fla.-- The University of Miamis Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science announced today that it has selected Dennis J. McGillicuddy, Jr., Ph.D., as recipient of the 2008 Rosenstiel Award. McGillicuddy, a senior scientist in the department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Mass., is a pioneer in the study of physical-biological interactions in the ocean. His multidisciplinary studies of plankton and ocean currents are helping to decipher what controls the productivity of marine ecosystems and how this affects the global carbon cycle.

The Rosenstiel Award is designed to honor scientists who, in the past decade, have made significant and growing impacts in their field. It's an award targeted for researchers who, in their early to mid-career stages, are already making outstanding scientific contributions.

McGillicuddy has broken new ground by bridging the gap between several physical and biological oceanographic disciplines, revolutionizing progressive marine ecosystem modeling and observations. He has developed physical-biological models for studying the population dynamics of copepods (tiny free-swimming crustaceans) on Georges Bank, as well as harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Maine. Some of these models have assimilated physical and biological data, an important step in providing forecasts of harmful algal blooms (including red tides.)

Understanding how marine systems function requires an integrated strategy that includes theory, observation and modeling, said McGillicuddy. By weaving these three approaches together, we can build comprehensive simulations that explicitly resolve the coupled physical-biological-chemical processes. This integration of observations and models not only provides a useful methodology for oceanic process studies, but also maximizes the utility of observations and aids in their interpretation.

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