The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private,
nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of
marine science
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 dyna ...
and
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
.
Established in 1930 in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 ...
, it is the largest independent oceanographic research institution in the U.S., with staff and students numbering about 1,000.
Constitution
The Institution is organized into six departments, the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research, and a marine policy center. Its shore-based facilities are located in the village of
Woods Hole,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, United States and a mile and a half away on the Quissett Campus. The bulk of the Institution's funding comes from grants and contracts from 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 ...
and other government agencies, augmented by foundations and private donations.
WHOI scientists, engineers, and students collaborate to develop theories, test ideas, build seagoing instruments, and collect data in diverse marine environments. Ships operated by WHOI carry research scientists throughout the world's oceans. The WHOI fleet includes two large research vessels (''
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...
'' and ''
Neil Armstrong''), the coastal craft ''
Tioga'', small research craft such as the dive-operation work boat Echo, the deep-diving human-occupied submersible ''
Alvin
Alvin may refer to:
Places Canada
*Alvin, British Columbia United States
*Alvin, Colorado
*Alvin, Georgia
*Alvin, Illinois
* Alvin, Michigan
*Alvin, Texas
* Alvin, Wisconsin, a town
*Alvin (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
Other ...
'', the tethered, remotely operated vehicle
Jason/Medea, and autonomous underwater vehicles such as the
REMUS and
SeaBED
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
.
WHOI offers graduate and post-doctoral studies in marine science. There are several fellowship and training programs, and graduate degrees are awarded through a joint program with the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT). WHOI is accredited by the
New England Association of Schools and Colleges. WHOI also offers public outreach programs and informal education through its Exhibit Center and summer tours. The Institution has a volunteer program and a membership program, WHOI Associate.
WHOI shares a library, the MBLWHOI Library, with the
Marine Biological Laboratory
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...
. The MBLWHOI Library holds print and electronic collections in the biological, biomedical, ecological, and oceanographic sciences. The library also conducts digitization and informatics projects.
On October 1, 2020,
Peter B. de Menocal became the institution's eleventh president and director.
History
In 1927, a
National Academy of Sciences committee concluded that it was time to "consider the share of the United States of America in a worldwide program of oceanographic research." The committee's recommendation for establishing a permanent independent research laboratory on the East Coast to "prosecute oceanography in all its branches" led to the founding in 1930 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
A $2.5 million grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation supported the summer work of a dozen scientists, construction of a laboratory building and commissioning of a research vessel, the ketch , whose profile still forms the Institution's logo.
WHOI grew substantially to support significant defense-related research during World War II, and later began a steady growth in staff, research fleet, and scientific stature. From 1950 to 1956, the director was Dr.
Edward "Iceberg" Smith, an Arctic explorer, oceanographer and retired
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
rear admiral.
In 1977 the institution appointed oceanographer
John Steele as director, and he served until his retirement in 1989.
On 1 September 1985, a joint French-American expedition led by
Jean-Louis Michel of
IFREMER and
Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution identified the location of the wreck of , which sank off the coast of
Newfoundland 15 April 1912.
On 3 April 2011, within a week of resuming of the search operation for
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447 (AF447 or AFR447) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France. On 1 June 2009, inconsistent airspeed indications led to the pilots inadvertently stalling the Airbus A330 ser ...
, a team led by WHOI, operating full ocean depth
autonomous underwater vehicle
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification that includ ...
s (AUVs) owned by the Waitt Institute discovered, by means of
sidescan sonar, a large portion of debris field from flight AF447.
[In search of Air France Flight 447]
Lawrence D. Stone Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences 2011
In March 2017 the institution effected an
open-access policy
An open-access mandate is a policy adopted by a research institution, research funder, or government which requires or recommends researchers—usually university faculty or research staff and/or research grant recipients—to make their publishe ...
to make its research
publicly accessible online.
The Institution has maintained a long and controversial business collaboration with the treasure hunter company Odyssey Marine. WHOI has participated in the location of the San José galleon in Colombia for the commercial exploitation of the shipwreck by the Government of President Santos and a private company.
In 2019, reported that
China's hackers had launched
cyberattacks on dozens of academic institutions in an attempt to gain information on technology being developed for the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.
Some of the targets included the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The attacks had been underway since at least April 2017.
Military contracting
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution develops technology for the United States Navy, including ocean battlespace sensors, unmanned undersea vehicles, and acoustic navigation and communication systems for operations in the Arctic. The Institution is also working on Project Sundance for the Office of Naval Research.
Awards issued
B. H. Ketchum Award
The B. H. Ketchum award, established in 1983, is presented for innovative coastal/nearshore research and is named in honor of oceanographer Bostwick H. "Buck" Ketchum. The award is administered by the WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute and Rinehart Coastal Research Center.
Recipients:
* 2017: Don Anderson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
* 2015:
Candace Oviatt, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island
* 2010: James E. Cloern,
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
* 2007: Richard Garvine,
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...
* 2003: John Farrington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
* 2003:
Nancy Rabalais,
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
* 1999: Willard Moore, University of South Carolina
* 1996: Ronald Smith,
Loughbororugh University
* 1995: Christopher Martens, University of North Carolina
* 1992: Scott Nixon,
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...
* 1990: Daniel Lynch,
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
* 1989: William Boicourt, University of Maryland
* 1988: Alasdair McIntyre, Aberdeen University (Emeritus)
* 1986: John S. Allen, Oregon State University
* 1985: Thomas H. Pearson, Oban, Argyll, Scotland
* 1985: Michael Moore, Plymouth, UK
* 1984:
Edward D. Goldberg,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal in Oceanography
The
Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal in Oceanography was established in 1960 in honor of the first WHOI Director, biologist
Henry Bryant Bigelow
Henry Bryant Bigelow (October 3, 1879 – December 11, 1967) was an American oceanographer and marine biologist.
He is the grandson of Henry Bryant who was an American physician and naturalist.
After graduating from Harvard in 1901, he beg ...
.
Recipients: Source:
*2004 David M. Karl (Professor of Oceanography,
University of Hawaii
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
) – for "his contributions to microbial oceanography, especially the development and leadership of long-term, integrated studies of chemical, physical, and biological variations in oceanic environments."
*1996 Bill J. Jenkins (Senior Scientist, Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry, WHOI) – for "his outstanding contributions to the development of the tritium-helium dating technique and its application to problems in ocean physics and biology and geochemistry, as well as his exceptional character and selfless dedication to the advance of science at WHOI."
*1993 Robert Weller (Senior Scientist, Physical Oceanography; Director, CICOR; WHOI)
*1992
Alice Louise Alldredge (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Mary Wilcox Silver (University of California, Santa Cruz) – for "their creative contributions to biological and chemical oceanography, particularly in demonstrating the importance of ‘marine snow’ as a major contributor to the vertical flux of particulate matter throughout the worlds oceans."
*1988 Hans Thomas Rossby (University of Rhode Island) and Douglas Chester Webb (Webb Research) – for "Their creative contributions to ocean technology and oceanography, particularly in the development of the SOFAR float and advancing out knowledge of Lagrangian ocean dynamics."
*1984 Arnold L. Gordon (Columbia University) for his "dedication in completing the Antarctic Circumpolar Survey"
*1980 Holger W. Jannasch (WHOI) – for his "creative contributions to marine microbiology by providing us with an understanding of the fundamentals of microbial processes in the sea and the dynamics of oceanic food chains."
*1979
Wolfgang Helmut Berger (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego) – for his "creative contributions to paleoceanography by opening the doors of perception on the controlling factors governing carbonate sedimentation in the oceans, and for providing us with a unifying conceptual model for interpreting the geological evolution of ocean basins."
*1974
Henry M. Stommel (WHOI)
*1970
Frederick J. Vine (WHOI) – In recognition of his "imaginative and sound contributions to man’s understanding of the formative processes active within the earth."
*1966
Columbus O'D. Iselin (WHOI)
*1964
Bruce C. Heezen (WHOI)
*1962
John C. Swallow
John Crossley Swallow FRS (11 October 1923 – 3 December 1994) was an English oceanographer, pages 33 etter Oand 568 etter S who invented the Swallow float (sometimes referred to as a neutral buoyancy float), a scientific drifting bottle bas ...
(WHOI)
*1960
Henry Bryant Bigelow
Henry Bryant Bigelow (October 3, 1879 – December 11, 1967) was an American oceanographer and marine biologist.
He is the grandson of Henry Bryant who was an American physician and naturalist.
After graduating from Harvard in 1901, he beg ...
Scientists
Over the years, WHOI scientists have made seminal discoveries about the ocean that have contributed to improving US commerce, health, national security, and quality of life. They have received awards and recognition from scientific societies such as
The Oceanography Society, the
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...
,
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and several others.
Notable scientists include:
*
Amy Bower
Amy Bower is an American physical oceanographer. She is known for her research on ocean circulation and for being one of the few blind oceanographers.
Career
Bower is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Cape Cod, ...
, senior scientist, blind oceanographer
*
Stan Hart, scientist emeritus,
William Bowie Medal recipient
*
Elizabeth Kujawinski, American oceanographer, Woods Hole Senior Scientist
*
Loral O’Hara, research engineer, NASA Astronaut Candidate
*
Christopher Reddy, senior scientist, oil spill researcher
*
Heidi Sosik, senior scientist in Biology, inventor
*
Klaus Hasselmann
Klaus Ferdinand Hasselmann (, born 25 October 1931) is a German oceanographer and climate modeller. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hamburg and former Director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. He was awarded the 2021 ...
, Doherty Professor at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1970 to 1972
Research fleet
Ships
WHOI operates several
research vessels, owned by the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, 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 ...
, or the Institution:
*
R/V ''Atlantis'' (AGOR-25) – 274 feet long, mothership of the ''Alvin'' submarine
*
R/V ''Tioga'' (WHOI-owned) – 60 feet long
*
R/V ''Neil Armstrong'' (AGOR-27) – 238 feet long
WHOI formerly operated ''
R/V Knorr'', which was replaced by R/V ''Neil Armstrong'' in 2015.
Small boat fleet
WHOI operates many small boats used in inland harbors, ponds, rivers, and coastal bays. All are owned by the Institution itself.
* Motorboat ''Echo'' – 29 feet long (mainly used as a work boat to support dive operations, also the newest small research craft at WHOI)
* Motorboat ''Mytilus'' – 24 feet long (mainly used in water too shallow for larger craft and is a versatile coastal research boat)
* Motorboat ''Calanus'' – 21 feet long (mainly used in local water bodies such as Great Harbor, Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay)
* Motorboat ''Limulus'' – 13 feet long (mainly used to shuttle equipment to larger craft and as a work platform for near-shore research tasks)
* Rowboat ''Orzrus'' – 12 feet long (mainly used in harbors and ponds where motor craft are not permitted)
Underwater vehicles
WHOI also has developed numerous underwater autonomous and remotely operated vehicles for research:
*
''Alvin'' (DSV-2) – human-occupied vehicle, the Institution's most well-known equipment
*
Deepsea Challenger – human-occupied vehicle designed, field-tested, and later donated to the WHOI by Canadian film director
James Cameron
* ''
Jason
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He ...
'' – a
remotely operated vehicle
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (technically ROUV or just ROV) is a tethered underwater mobile device, commonly called ''underwater robot''.
Definition
This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the a ...
(ROV)
* ''
Sentry
Sentry or The Sentry may refer to:
Comics
*Sentry (Kree)
*Sentry (Curtis Elkins)
* Sentry (Robert Reynolds)
*Senator Ward (comics) or Sentry
Vehicles
*Sentry (AUV), an autonomous underwater vehicle used to measure deep-ocean data
*E-3 Sentry AWAC ...
'' – an
autonomous underwater vehicle
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification that includ ...
(AUV) and successor to ''ABE''
* ''
Nereus
In Greek mythology, Nereus ( ; ) was the eldest son of Pontus (the Sea) and Gaia ( the Earth), with Pontus himself being a son of Gaia. Nereus and Doris became the parents of 50 daughters (the Nereids) and a son ( Nerites), with whom Nereus ...
'' – A hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV); lost on 5/10/14 while exploring the Kermadec Trench.
* ''
Remus'' – Remote Environment Monitoring UnitS, a family of autonomous underwater vehicles
*
SeaBED
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
– an autonomous underwater vehicle optimized for high-resolution seafloor imaging
*
Spray Glider – a remotely operated vehicle, used to collect data about the salinity, temperature, etc. about an area
*
Slocum Glider – another remotely operated vehicle, with functions similar to the functions of the Spray Glider
*
CAMPER – a towed vehicle used to collect samples from the seabed of the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
*
Seasoar – a submarine towed by a ship
*
TowCam – a submarine with cameras that is towed by a ship along the ocean floor to take photographs
*
Video Plankton Recorder – a submarine with microscopic camera systems, towed along by a ship to take videos of plankton
*
Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) – an autonomous underwater vehicle
Notable people
*
Lisan Yu – known for serving on the Earth Science Advisory Committee (ESAC), and on the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) committee of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
.
See also
*
52-hertz whale
The 52-hertz whale, colloquially referred to as 52 Blue, is an individual whale of unidentified species that calls at the unusual frequency of 52 hertz. This pitch is at a higher frequency than that of the other whale species with migration ...
*
Liquid Jungle Lab, a tropical research station in Pacific Panama operated by WHOI
*
Marine Biological Laboratory
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...
, a neighboring but administratively unrelated institution in Woods Hole
* The
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, a smaller oceanographic facility located at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
in New Jersey
*
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, a similar research facility associated with
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-ca ...
and located in
Fort Pierce, Florida
Fort Pierce is a city in and the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Treasure Coast region of Atlantic Coast Florida. It is also known as the Sunrise City, sister to San Francisco, California, the Suns ...
*
Hatfield Marine Science Center
The Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) is a marine science research and education center next to Yaquina Bay of the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is operated by Oregon State University in cooperation with five state and federa ...
, a similar research facility associated with the
Oregon State University
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...
and located in
Newport, Oregon
*
Hopkins Marine Station Hopkins Marine Station is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located ninety miles south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove, California (United States) on the Monterey Peninsula, adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. ...
, a similar research facility run by
Stanford University in
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
, California
*
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
The Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) is a multi-campus marine research consortium of the California State University System, headquartered at Moss Landing, California.
Organization
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories is part of the Californ ...
, a multi-campus marine research consortium of the
California State University System
*
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a similar research facility associated with the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
and located in
La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
, California
References
External links
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
{{authority control
Independent research institutes
Oceanographic organizations
Research institutes in Massachusetts
Education in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Research institutes established in 1930
1930 in biology
1930 establishments in Massachusetts
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Private universities and colleges in Massachusetts