Interdisciplinary Research and Training at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Program

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer Program (GFD) is a ten-week program of interdisciplinary research and graduate training. The Program began in 1959 and has been held for all 49 years of its lifetime at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with the purpose of creating an atmosphere to foster the transfer of ideas between a wide range of subjects including applied mathematics, astrophysics, fluid dynamics, geology, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, planetary science, engineering, and physics. The central focus of the program is the training in research of a small group of graduate students (typically nine or ten), who are charged with conducting an advanced research project for the bulk of the summer, and presenting their results in both oral and written reports at the end of the summer program. The research projects are individually or jointly supervised by members of the GFD staff, a group of summer-long participants in the Program who are established academics from the diverse fields represented at GFD. Each year, the Program runs with a theme on a particular topic relevant to geophysical fluid dynamics. The summer opens with two weeks of principal lectures on the theme. Invited visitors continue to give seminars throughout the remainder of the Program, both on work related to the theme, but also on topics from geophysical fluid dynamics in general. The idea is to expose the participants to a new subject, with its particular phenomenology and techniques, while simultaneously maintaining a broader perspective, thus setting the stage for interdisciplinary interactions. In the coming five years, the following themes might be explored: Nonlinear Waves, Fluid Mechanics and Ecosystems, Coherent Structures, Buoyancy Currents, and Turbulent Transitions.