The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS ) is the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
's academic and research institution for the study of
oceanography
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynami ...
and
atmospheric sciences
Atmospheric science is the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study ...
.
Founded in 1943, the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School is the only subtropical applied and basic marine and atmospheric research institute in the continental United States. The school is also home to the world's largest
hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...
simulation tank.
Up until 2008, Rosenstiel School was solely a
graduate school
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and ...
within the University of Miami, though it jointly administrated an
undergraduate program
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-l ...
with the University of Miami's College of Arts and Sciences. In 2008, Rosenstiel School launched an undergraduate program, granting both Bachelor of Science in Marine and Atmospheric Science (BSMAS) and Bachelor of Arts in Marine Affairs (BAMA) undergraduate degrees and
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. s.
Doctorate degrees
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' l ...
are awarded Rosenstiel School students by the University of Miami's Graduate School.
The Rosenstiel School's research includes the
study of marine life, including
aplysia and
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...
,
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, air-sea interactions,
coastal ecology, and
oceanography law. The school operates a marine research laboratory ship and has a research site at an inland
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
. Research also includes the use of data from weather satellites and the school operates its own satellite downlink facility.
The Rosenstiel School is located east from the University of Miami's main
Coral Gables campus on
Virginia Key
Virginia Key is an barrier island in Miami, Florida. It is located in Biscayne Bay south of Brickell and north of Key Biscayne and is accessible from the mainland via the Rickenbacker Causeway.
The island is mainly occupied by the Virginia K ...
in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
.
History
In 1940,
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
president
Bowman Foster Ashe
Bowman Foster Ashe (April 3, 1885 – December 16, 1952) was a U.S. educator who served as the first president of the University of Miami.
Early life and education
Bowman Foster Ashe was born in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, ...
recruited
F.G. Walton Smith Dr. F.G. Walton Smith (1909–1989) was an oceanographer who founded the first marine laboratory at the University of Miami, which ultimately grew into the university's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Early life
Originall ...
, a British
marine biologist who was working in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
to join the University of Miami's Department of Zoology and develop of a marine laboratory at the university. In 1943, the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami established the Marine Laboratory for the University.
[ They invited researchers and oceanographers to associate themselves with the laboratory whose three original objectives were teaching, basic research, and applied marine research. The laboratory focused on subjects specific to a tropical environment. Initially, the Marine Lab was located in a private boathouse on an estate on Belle Isle in ]Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which ...
. In 1945, when the boathouse became structurally unsafe, the lab moved to a converted apartment building in Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248.
Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...
near the main campus.
In 1947, a delegation from Dade County prompted the Florida State Legislature to support development of a state Marine Laboratory in conjunction with the UM lab. It reported to the State Board of Conservation, which had no marine research facility and little budget of its own at the time. The relationship lasted for 12 years until the state of Florida built the board a lab in St. Petersburg. In 1953, the School's classrooms and laboratories were built at the current Virginia Key location. It was renamed Institute of Marine Science in 1961, it became part of the University of Miami's School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences.
In 1969, the institution was made into an independent school and named to honor Lewis and Dorothy Rosenstiel after a major contribution from Rosenstiel's foundation to support progress in atmospheric and marine sciences. In 1977, the school began a joint undergraduate program with Miami's College of Arts & Sciences.[ The school bought Research vessels and built more facilities to further research projects. From 2003 to 2008, the school operated Pew Institute for Ocean Science as a joint venture with the ]Pew Charitable Trusts
The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948.
With over 6 billion in assets, its stated mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, a ...
, and in 2008, the program relocated to SUNY at Stony Brook.
In 2008, the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School took over administration of the university's undergraduate Marine Science, Marine Affairs, and Meteorology programs. Also in 2008, RSMAS's library merged with the central University of Miami Library. Recently, RSMAS started unique a one-year Master of Professional Science degree program aimed at students planning non-research careers in business, government, or non-profit organizations.
Academics
While the graduate programs are conducted by Rosenstiel School faculty who report to the dean of the Rosenstiel School, the University of Miami's Graduate School awards the school's graduate degrees. Rosenstiel School offers a joint program with the University of Miami School of Law
The University of Miami School of Law (Miami Law or UM Law) is the law school of the University of Miami, a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida.
Founded in 1926, the University of Miami School of Law is the oldest law school ...
, which awards its students both a Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...
degree and a Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in Marine Affairs and Policy. The school also administers the University of Miami's undergraduate programs in marine science, marine affairs, and meteorology on the university's main Coral Gables campus.
Rosenstiel School is divided into six academic divisions, each focusing on a different aspect of oceanography:
* Ocean Sciences (fluid dynamics
In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) a ...
, remote sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Ear ...
, wave
In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (re ...
s)
* Marine Ecosystem and Society (admiralty law
Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between priv ...
, aquaculture
Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
, marine conservation
Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is i ...
, maritime archaeology
Maritime archaeology (also known as marine archaeology) is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, s ...
, natural resource economics, political ecology)
* Marine Biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifi ...
& Ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
* Marine G eosciences
* Atmospheric Sciences
In addition to its academic divisions, Rosenstiel School has several research units: Oceans and Human Health Center, National Resource for '' Aplysia'', National Center for Coral Reef Research, Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) conducts research into the effects of the environment on human disease, as one of the 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is located in the Rese ...
. , 358 professors and scientists conduct research programs and teach at Rosenstiel School and the University of Miami's main campus. Of these, 81 are regular full-time faculty members.
The school operates ''F.G. Walton Smith'', a research vessel
A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicate ...
. Designed to meet the school's specifications, the catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-sta ...
was put on water in 2000. It is equipped with a special sea water flow system that can take samples. The on-board lab can perform chemical analysis of those water samples. It also has transducer
A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.
Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, measurement, and con ...
s for measuring ocean currents, sub-bottom profiling, and deep water bathymetry
Bathymetry (; ) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors ('' seabed topography''), lake floors, or river floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The first recorded evidence of water ...
. In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considere ...
, the vessel was reassigned to environmental monitoring of affected areas and to track underwater plumes of oil.[
Rosenstiel School's research invertebrate museum houses one of the world's most extensive collections of invertebrate tropical marine life with 400,000 specimens. It includes Atlantic tropical marine invertebrates. The collection consists of 60,000 specimen lots, out of which 38,900 are cataloged and identified species.
Since 2005, Rosenstiel School has conducted an ]underwater photography
Underwater photography is the process of taking photographs while under water. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while diving on surface supply, snorkeling, swimming, from a submersible or remotely operated underwater ...
contest that draws international submissions. RSMAS also makes underwater photographs available through its Digital Atlas of Marine Species and Locations, which is a database that includes photos of specific marine species.
Since 1951, Rosenstiel School has published ''Bulletin of Marine Science'' a scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research.
Content
Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such ...
which publishes research papers in marine subject areas covered by the school. It is published four times a year.
The United States National Research Council
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...
ranked graduate research programs based on 2008 data, and RSMAS ranked 11th to 40th among Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences, and Meteorology Rankings. Rosenstiel School entering graduate students' average quantitative Graduate Record Examination
The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada and a few other countries. The GRE is owned and administered by Educational Testing Serv ...
score was 681.
Campus
The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School's Virginia Key
Virginia Key is an barrier island in Miami, Florida. It is located in Biscayne Bay south of Brickell and north of Key Biscayne and is accessible from the mainland via the Rickenbacker Causeway.
The island is mainly occupied by the Virginia K ...
campus includes classroom facilities, laboratories, a dock
A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning vari ...
, and a student center. The center, called F. G. Walton Smith Commons, holds a cafeteria and a bar (aka "the wet lab") that was rated as one of Miami's best secrets by ''Miami New Times
The ''Miami New Times'' is a newspaper published in Miami, Florida, United States, and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami-Dade County, Miami area and is headquartered in Miami's Wynwood Art District.
Overview
It was acquir ...
'' in 2008. The campus features mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...
s, sea grape trees, and dune plants to protect its sand dunes and the campus from storm damage. In 2009, UM received a $15 million federal grant to help construct a new $43.8 million, Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater Research Building. The Virginia Key campus is located at a marine research and education park that is also home to two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditi ...
(NOAA) research laboratories and the Maritime and Science Technology Academy
Maritime and Science Technology Academy, commonly referred to as MAST Academy, or MAST, is a public high school in Miami, Florida, on Virginia Key. MAST Academy is a magnet school under the governance of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The scho ...
magnet school
In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...
.[
The school also operates a site on mainland ]Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
that was formerly the United States Naval Observatory
United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the Depo ...
Secondary National Time Standard Facility, which already had buildings and a 20M antenna used for Very Long Baseline Interferometry
Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telescopes on Earth or in space. T ...
(VLBI). Rosenstiel School's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) and Richmond Satellite Operations Center (RSOC) have research facilities located on what is now named the Richmond Campus.
In the 1990s, the school hosted the Miami Hoshuko
is a supplementary Japanese school in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It holds classes in the First Baptist Church of Coral Park ( es, Iglesia Bautista de Coral Park) in Westchester, and it has its office in Doral. , a part-time Japanese school for Japanese citizens and ethnic Japanese people in the area. While there, Miami Hoshuko used ten classrooms, a library, and a cafeteria facility.
Research
As of 2008, the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School receives $50 million in annual external research funding. Laboratories at Virginia Key are equipped with specialized instruments including a salt-water wave tank, the five-tank Conditioning and Spawning Systems, multi-tank '' Aplysia'' Culture Laboratory, Controlled Corals Climate Tanks, and DNA analysis equipment. The Richmond Campus' CSTARS provides Rosenstiel School with a near-real-time weather satellite downlink. Rosenstiel School also operates Bimini Biological Field Station, an array of oceanographic high-frequency radar along the U.S. east coast
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...
, and its Bermuda aerosol observatory.
Research projects at Rosenstiel School are in the domain of atmospheric and marine sciences and include:
*Coral reef research, focusing on corals survival in a new climate conditions; coral reef protection
*Field programs evaluating trace gas chemistry and transport
*The aquaculture program
*Climate change modeling
*Tropical weather, climate, and atmospheric/oceanic circulations
*Air-sea interactions research through buoys, remote sensing, analysis in situ, a wave tank laboratory, numerical modeling;
*Volcanoes in the Pacific, Everglades water level measurements and subsidence through satellite images
*Studies of coastal quality and their impact on human health.
Rosenstiel School's Marine Affairs and Policy Division conducts archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and paleontological research at Little Salt Spring
Little Salt Spring is an archaeological and paleontological site in North Port, Florida. The site has been owned by the University of Miami since 1980 with research performed there by the university's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric ...
in Sarasota County
Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton, FL ...
. The site was donated to the University of Miami in 1982. Rosenstiel School also hosts the National Center for Coral Reef Research (NCORE), which works to understand, conserve and manage coral reefs worldwide.
Rosenstiel School has focused significant resources to studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its long term environmental effect. The school is an active member of the State of Florida's Oil Spill Academic Task Force that works with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is the Florida government agency responsible for environmental protection.
History
By the mid-1960s, when the federal government was becoming increasingly involved in initiatives desig ...
on spill issues. In the summer of 2010, a CIMAS team working with the research vessel Walton Smith was able to document a long oil plume extending toward Dry Tortugas
Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson and the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys. The archipelago's c ...
.
The quality of the school is evaluated through peer-reviewed competition for faculty research grants. In addition, each year, the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
conducts a nationwide student competition for Graduate Research Award Fellowship, and in 2010, five RSMAS students received such awards with two additional honorable mentions.
Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies
Since 1977, the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies
The Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) is a research institute of the University of Miami located in its Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) in Miami, Florida.
CIMAS brings together the Univer ...
(CIMAS), a scientific partnership between the University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
and NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
, has been studying climate change, air-sea interactions and coastal ecology.
Notable faculty
* Frederick Bayer (Marine Biology)
* Lisa Beal
Lisa M. Beal is a professor at the University of Miami known for her work on the Agulhas Current. She is the editor-in-chief of the '' Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans''.
Education and career
Beal grew up in the United Kingdom, and was f ...
(Oceanography)
* Amy C. Clement (Atmospheric Science)
* Cesare Emiliani
Cesare Emiliani (8 December 1922 – 20 July 1995) was an Italian-American scientist, geologist, micropaleontologist, and founder of paleoceanography, developing the timescale of marine isotope stages, which despite modifications remains in ...
(Geology and Geophysics) - "founder of paleoceanography"
* Rana Fine (Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry), physical oceanographer
* Samuel H. Gruber (Marine Biology and Fisheries)[
* Roger Lhermitte (Radar Meteorology)
* ]José Carlos Millás
José Carlos Millás (January 22, 1889 – November 28, 1965) was a Cuban meteorologist. He is known for his research on past Atlantic hurricane seasons, and has been called one of the "fathers of tropical meteorology".
Born in Havana, Cuba, M ...
(Meteorology)
* Fred Tappert
Frederick Drach Tappert (April 21, 1940 – January 9, 2002) was an American physicist whose primary contributions were in underwater acoustics. He is noted for the development of the parabolic equation model and split-step Fourier algorithm ...
(Applied Marine Physics)
See also
*List of University of Miami alumni
This list of University of Miami alumni includes globally-recognized academics, business executives, scientists, heads of state and governmental agencies, political and nonprofit leaders, television and film personalities, musicians, profession ...
*University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
References
External links
University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science website
Digital Atlas of Marine Species and Locations
F.G. Walton Smith vessel brochure
RSMAS brochure
{{authority control
Education in Miami
Educational institutions established in 1943
Oceanographic organizations
Research institutes in Florida
University of Miami
1943 establishments in Florida