Interdisciplinary Research and Training at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Program

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Overview: The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer Program (GFD) is a ten-week program of interdisciplinary research and graduate training. GFD began in 1959 and has been held for all 54 years of its lifetime at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Intellectual Merit: The GFD program has two equally important governing purposes. The first is to provide the right environment and nurture the right atmosphere to foster the transfer of ideas between a wide range of subjects including applied mathematics, oceanography, fluid dynamics, geophysics, geology, meteorology, astrophysics, planetary science, engineering, and physics. The second is to train through research a small group of graduate students (typically nine or ten), who are charged with conducting an advanced project for the bulk of the summer, and to present their results in both oral and written reports during the final week. These two purposes are by design intertwined: the student research projects are individually or jointly supervised by members of the GFD Staff, a group of summer-long participants who are academics from the diverse fields represented at GFD and thereby, often catalyze new long-lasting collaborations between multiple advisors and their students. Each year, the Program focuses on a particular topic relevant to geophysical fluid dynamics, often selected to address the needs of the scientific community at the time. The summer opens with two weeks of principal lectures on the theme. After these two pedagogical weeks, daily seminars are given by invited visitors 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 next five years, the following themes will be explored, each of which has a strong societal relevance and interdisciplinary nature: Climate Dynamics; Bio-fluid mechanics (Synchronized Swimming); Ice-Ocean Interaction: Submarine Melting; Geophysical Fluid Dynamics and environmental sustainability; and Stochastic Effects in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics. Broader Impacts: By virtue of its very discursive and interactive style, GFD naturally promotes the dissemination of scientific results among researchers from very different backgrounds; techniques from different disciplines are readily transferred across disciplinary borders, and parallels between problems in very different fields can be easily appreciated. GFD advances discovery and understanding, while promoting teaching and training by involving graduate students in research. The Program often introduces the graduate students to prospective employers at the postdoctoral level and beyond, and broadens their scientific network; GFD has in the past helped to attract many extremely talented young scientists to the US for postdoctoral research and academic positions. The topics selected for the proposed five-year cycle have strong broader impacts; for example aiming at improving future projections of climate change, with impact on human societies and well-being, and at improving the representation of ice sheet dynamics in climate models, hence the ability to accurately predict sea-level rise, an issue of vital and important societal concern. An entire summer will also be dedicated to environmental sustainability with a broader impact on energy and resource use. Finally, the annual GFD Public Lecture targeted toward a general audience introduces the local community (both scientific and general public) to the science of geophysical fluid dynamics and its many important and interesting applications.