Grad Profiles - University of South Florida Marine Sciences

Overview
The University of South Florida was founded in 1956. The first major state university in America to be planned and built entirely in this century, it is the second-largest public university in Florida. The Department of Marine Science, established in 1967, became the College of Marine Science in summer 2000. It is the only College located entirely on the St. Petersburg Campus. The main campus in Tampa, with its wealth of supportive and cultural activities, is just 35 miles away via Interstate Highway 275. The College's newest building, opened in 1994, is the 50,000-square-foot Knight Oceanographic Research Center. Renovation of the College's original building is ongoing and has added 10,000 square feet of laboratory and office space to accommodate the new Center for Ocean Technology.

For the 1999–2000 academic year, there were more than 100 graduate students enrolled in the marine science program. More than half are working toward a Ph.D. degree. Approximately 45 students are in biological oceanography, 20 in chemical oceanography, 25 in geological oceanography, and 10 in physical oceanography. Most program graduates have obtained positions in their field or have gone on to other universities for their Ph.D.'s.

The Community
The College is situated just a few blocks from downtown St. Petersburg and the Bayfront Center Arena-Theater (where major performing groups entertain), museums (including the Salvador Dali Museum), Florida Power Park (where major-league spring training games are held), Albert Whitted Airport (a general aviation airport servicing the USF Flying Club), numerous restaurants, department stores, shops, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, and marinas. The Gulf Coast beaches are within a 20-minute drive of the campus. Because the marine environment is extremely important in this area—both from a commercial and a leisure-activity point of view—the department receives considerable attention and support from the community.

Programs of study and degree requirements
The College of Marine Science on the St. Petersburg Campus of the University of South Florida offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees with specializations in biological, chemical, geological, and physical oceanography. Students are strongly encouraged to take interdisciplinary programs encompassing two or more of the four basic disciplines.

Both M.S. and Ph.D. candidates are required to complete a core course program covering the four basic oceanographic disciplines. Requirements for the M.S. degree include 32 credit hours of course and research work and defense of a thesis that makes an original contribution to oceanography. Ph.D. candidates are required to demonstrate proficiency in a "tool of research" (e.g., a foreign language, a programming language, statistics, or some other skill directly relevant to the candidate's area of study). Candidates must also successfully complete a written and oral comprehensive examination. After completing 90 credit hours of course and research work, they must defend a dissertation that represents a publishable contribution to marine science. Students are encouraged to participate in oceanographic research cruises during the course of their enrollment.

As part of a variety of national and international programs supported by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies, over the past five years the department's students and faculty have conducted research in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans; the Gulf of Mexico; and the Norwegian, Arabian, and Bering seas.

Facilities & Resources
The College of Marine Science is located at Bayboro Harbor, Port of St. Petersburg. The harbor has immediate access to Tampa Bay and can accommodate any ship in the fleet of U.S. oceanographic vessels. Bayboro Harbor is home port to the R/V Suncoaster (110 feet) and the R/V Bellows (71 feet), the principal vessels operated by the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) for the entire state university system. FIO is located within the original building (82,000 square feet) of the College of Marine Science. The College's research facilities are adjacent to the Florida Marine Research Institute, the research arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In 1988, the St. Petersburg Campus became the site of the Center for Coastal Geology of the United States Geological Survey.

For 2001–02, tuition is $147.02 per semester hour for state residents and $525.78 per semester hour for nonresident students. Out-of-state students who are American citizens may establish Florida residency after one year if certain criteria are met.

Financial Aid: Approximately fifteen state-supported assistantships are available each year for beginning students. In addition, approximately ten fellowships are available from endowments. After their first year, students can obtain support by pursuing research on grant-supported projects. Assistantships pay in the range of $12,000 to $18,000 for twelve months. A number of out-of-state tuition waivers are available for first-year students.

Housing/Living Expenses: There are no on-campus accommodations in St. Petersburg, but students easily find apartments or houses near the campus. The rents range between $350 and $650 per month, and single students often share rental expenses. The average total living expenses for students are currently about $700 per month.

How to Apply
Applications should be submitted by June 1 for the fall semester and November 1 for the spring semester. (The deadlines for international applicants are May 1 for the fall and September 1 for the spring semesters.) The financial aid deadlines are February 15 and October 1, respectively. Minimum requirements for admission are an undergraduate major in biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, math, or physics; an upper-level GPA of 3.0; and a GRE General Test (verbal and quantitative sections) score of 1100. Applicants are also expected to have successfully completed 1 year of calculus.

Who to Contact
Graduate Program Coordinator
College of Marine Science
University of South Florida
140 7th Avenue, South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
Telephone: 727-553-1130
http://www.marine.usf.edu

THE FACULTY AND THEIR RESEARCH

Peter R. Betzer, Professor and Acting Dean; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1971. Chemical oceanography, chemical tracers, pollutant transfer, particle fluxes, role of organisms in modifying chemistry of seawater.
Norman J. Blake, Professor; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1972. Ecology and physiology of marine invertebrates, inshore environmental ecology and pollution, reproductive physiology of mollusks and crustaceans.
Robert H. Byrne, Professor; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1974. Chemical oceanography, physical chemistry of seawater, ionic interactions, marine surface chemistry, oceanic CO2 system chemistry.
Kendall L. Carder, Professor; Ph.D., Oregon State, 1970. Physical oceanography, ocean optics, suspended-particle dynamics, instrument development, ocean remote sensing.
Paula G. Coble, Associate Professor; Ph.D., MIT (Woods Hole Joint Program), 1990. Chemical oceanography, marine organic geochemistry, fluorescence and remote sensing of dissolved organic matter in seawater.
Kendra Daly, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Tennessee, 1995. Biological oceanography, marine plankton dynamics, influence of physical forcing on biological variability, role of marine biota in biogeochemical cycles.
Larry J. Doyle, Professor; Ph.D., USC, 1973. Marine geology, sedimentology, sedimentary processes of the continental margins.
Kent A. Fanning, Professor; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1973. Chemical oceanography, pore-water geochemistry, nutrients in the ocean, marine radiochemistry.
Benjamin P. Flower, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., California, Santa Barbara, 1993. Paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, isotope geochemistry.
Boris Galperin, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Technion (Israel), 1982. Physical oceanography, boundary layers, turbulence, renormalization group theory, numerical modeling of oceanic circulation.
Pamela Hallock-Muller, Professor; Ph.D., Hawaii, 1977. Micropaleontology, paleoceanography, carbonate sedimentology, coral reef ecology.
Albert C. Hine, Professor; Ph.D., South Carolina, 1975. Carbonate sedimentology, coastal sedimentary processes, geological oceanography, sequence stratigraphy.
David J. Hollander, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Swiss Federal Instistute of Technology, 1989. Isotopic biogeochemistry, molecular organic geochemistry, carbon cycling in modern lakes and oceans, paleolimnology/paleoceanography, chemical sedimentology.
Thomas L. Hopkins, Professor; Ph.D., Florida State, 1964. Biological oceanography, marine plankton and micronekton ecology, oceanic food webs.
Peter A. Howd, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Oregon State, 1991. Beach and inner-shelf processes, beach morphodynamics, wave-driven processes on coral reefs.
Mark E. Luther, Associate Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1982. Physical oceanography, numerical modeling of ocean circulation, equatorial dynamics, air-sea interaction, climate variability, estuarine circulation.
Gary T. Mitchum, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Florida State, 1984. Physical oceanography, ocean's role in climate variability, physical factors influencing biological variability.
Frank E. Müller-Karger, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Maryland, 1988. Marine, estuarine, and environmental science; biological oceanography; remote sensing; nutrient cycles.
David F. Naar, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., California, San Diego (Scripps), 1990. Marine geophysics, plate tectonics, marine tectonics, midocean ridge processes, physical modeling using molten wax.
John H. Paul, Professor; Ph.D., Miami (Florida), 1980. Marine microbiology and genetics, gene transfer mechanisms.
Terrence M. Quinn, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Brown, 1989. Paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, carbonate geology, isotope geochemistry.
Joan B. Rose, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Arizona, 1985. Water pollution microbiology, risk assessment, coastal water quality, parasites and viruses.
Sarah F. Tebbens, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Columbia, 1994. Marine geophysics, aeromagnetics, plate boundary processes, triple junction evolution, natural hazard assessment.
Joseph J. Torres, Professor; Ph.D., California, Santa Barbara, 1980. Biological oceanography, deep-sea biology, bioenergetics of pelagic animals, comparative physiology.
Edward S. Van Vleet, Professor; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1978. Chemical oceanography, organic geochemistry, molecular biomarkers, hydrocarbon pollution.
Gabriel A. Vargo, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1976. Biological oceanography; phytoplankton ecology, physiology, and nutrient dynamics.
John J. Walsh, Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., Miami (Florida), 1969. Continental shelf ecosystems, systems analysis of marine food webs, global carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Robert W. Weisberg, Professor; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1975. Physical oceanography, equatorial ocean dynamics, estuarine and nearshore circulation studies.

Adjunct Faculty