Graduate student Kristen Shake and chemical oceanographer Jeremy Mathis study seawater samples in Mathis' lab at UAF. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Mathis.
SFOS Newsletter
Fall 2009
Featured faculty
Jeremy Mathis, Asst. Prof. of Oceanography
by Carin Stephens, Senior Public Information Officer
Jeremy Mathis never expected to be an oceanographer in Alaska, and he certainly never expected to be a voice for the effects of climate change on Alaska waters. Mathis grew up in the oil and gas capital of the Lower 48–in a small town in southeast Texas. In his family, when you grew up, you went to work in an oil refinery or a petrochemical plant. As Mathis says, it was simply expected of you.
When Mathis graduated from high school, he decided to do something different but without completely breaking with family tradition. He decided to get a college degree, but he also held on to his roots by majoring in chemical engineering. This way he could still "work at the plant" but instead of being a blue-collar worker, he would be what his family considered the "pinnacle" of financial success: he would be an engineer. He also chose a college (McNeese State University) that was only an hour from home. Again, Mathis had one foot forward and one foot rooted in tradition.
During his undergraduate work, Mathis would spend one semester taking classes and one semester working at a local oil refinery as an assistant engineer. He learned more than just about chemical engineering. He also learned that he didn't like working in the oil industry. After graduating from college, Mathis decided to do what he calls "something more environmentally relevant." He chose to enter directly into a Ph.D. program at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Initially thinking he would study physical oceanography, he was guided into the office of a chemical oceanographer who recently received several years of funding for six Arctic cruises. Mathis was accepted into the Ph.D. program and he and his wife, Shelby, moved to Miami. The day after they arrived in Miami, Mathis took the second plane ride of his life: from Miami to Barrow, Alaska, where he then hopped aboard an icebreaker for 45-day cruise in the western Arctic Ocean.
Mathis can't name the exact moment when he decided to study the ocean, but he says the ocean was always an important part of his life. Growing up on the Gulf Coast, he loved to fish, sail and eventually SCUBA dive. He didn't graduate with his bachelor's degree saying "I want to be an oceanographer" but he did say "I want an adventure." For him, oceanography offered adventures and opportunities previously unimaginable to him— like studying aboard a ship in the Arctic.
Mathis didn't graduate with his bachelor's degree saying "I want to be an oceanographer," but he did say "I want an adventure."
His first cruise to the Arctic was right after finishing his chemical engineering degree. He hadn't even taken a single oceanography class. Mathis says he was "very intimidated and apprehensive" about the group of international experts on the ship, including several scientists from UAF. Jim Swift, an oceanographer from Scripps and the cruise's chief scientist, quickly welcomed Mathis and eventually became both a mentor and "extraordinary friend."
When he stepped off the plane back to Miami after his first cruise, he had both feet in the world of oceanography. Mathis says that he felt like he learned more on that first cruise than in two years of coursework. He calls the cruises a "kickstart for his Ph.D. studies." He would go on a cruise (a total of six during his degree) and collect data and write about his findings, then come home and submit his work for publication. As a result, he graduated with his Ph.D. in only four years and had five first-author articles published or almost published by the time he graduated. These articles came together as his dissertation, on the organic carbon cycle in the western Arctic Ocean. He graduated with his Ph.D. in 2006.
Mathis spent only nine months as a post-doc at the University of Miami before coming to Alaska as an assistant professor of oceanography at SFOS. He had enjoyed working with SFOS scientists Terry Whitledge, Dean Stockwell and Tom Weingartner on previous cruises and he knew he wanted to come to Alaska.
After joining SFOS and analyzing carbon in Alaska waters, Mathis recognized the importance of what ocean acidification could do to Alaska's vastly productive Bering Sea. He gathered multiple sets of seawater samples from Alaska's Arctic waters, the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. When he tested the samples' pH level, Mathis made an alarming discovery: the coastal waters surrounding Alaska were becoming more acidic at an accelerated rate compared with warmer waters (see page one of this newsletter).
Mathis is the first to admit that his professional life has come full-circle–from working as a chemical engineering intern in an oil refinery to studying the effects of increased carbon output on the oceans. He says that the vast majority of his future research efforts will be on ocean acidification.
Learn more about Jeremy Mathis and ocean acidification on page one of this newsletter and at www.sfos.uaf.edu/oa.
Click on the image to download the Fall 2009 newsletter (5.6 MB PDF).
Greetings from the Dean
This will be an exciting year for
the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. After adding seven new faculty members last year, five new faculty
will join us this semester and two more after the first of the year. We also begin this semester with more graduate students and the largest incoming class of fisheries undergraduates (20) in our history.
New findings show increased
ocean acidification in Alaska
The same things that make Alaska's marine waters among the
most productive in the world may also make them the most vulnerable to ocean acidification.
According to new findings by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist, Alaska's oceans
are becoming increasingly acidic, which could damage Alaska's king crab and salmon fisheries.
Christie takes over Alaska Sea Grant
The University of Alaska Fairbanks has appointed David Christie as the director of the Alaska Sea Grant College Program.
Bristol Bay region welcomes local as new Marine
Advisory Program agent
Bristol Bay, home to Alaska's largest wild commercial salmon fishery, once again has an Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory
Program agent to help fishermen, seafood processors and marketers, and other marine resource users.
Spotlight: Richard H. Carlson Scholarship
Scholarships are increasingly important as our current economy encourages more people to attend and return
to higher education. In times like these, scholarships are vital because for many students scholarships are the
difference between taking two classes or four, filling up their gas tank or buying books, and
they provide stability in otherwise uncertain times.
Mathis didn't graduate with his bachelor's degree saying "I want to be an oceanographer," but he did say "I want an adventure."
Featured faculty
Jeremy Mathis, Asst. Prof. of Oceanography
Jeremy Mathis never expected to be an oceanographer in Alaska, and he certainly
never expected to be a voice for the effects of climate change on Alaska waters.
Atkinson takes the helm at the Fisheries Division
Shannon Atkinson is the new interim director of the UAF Fisheries Division, headquartered in Juneau.
Atkinson took the helm from Bill Smoker, after he retired this summer.
Standouts - Faculty and Staff News
AOOS launches Prince William Sound Field Experiment
This summer, the Alaska Ocean Observing System conducted high-tech, high-speed field experiments in Prince William Sound
to collect data and evaluate models that predict wind, waves, ocean circulation, and oil spill trajectories.
More
"I grew up hearing about Alaska from my parents and neighbors and later in college from friends who worked on fishing boats. The stories fed my imagination and much of what I imagined I found to be true."
Featured Staff
Deborah Mercy, Program Development Media Specialist
Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program
In 1976 I visited Anchorage during the spring break of my final year at the University of Washington. After graduation, that
same year, I got a job on a Southeast Alaska salmon purse seine fishing boat. We were based out of Craig on Prince of Wales
Island.
PROJECT Spotlight
Surveying the giant Pacific octopus
by Tara Borland, Proposal Coordinator
In a partnership with the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, SFOS Marine Advisory Program agent, Reid Brewer, is working
on a project studying the ecology of the giant Pacific octopus.
"the curriculum has integrated classroom learning and 'real world' opportunities"
Featured Student
Mark Young, Bachelor of Arts in Fisheries
The Army brought my family and me to Alaska. My involvement with UAF started almost immediately upon my
arrival, both as a student and an adjunct instructor in the music department.
Welcome Aboard
by Madeline Scholl, Academic Programs Assistant
As we usher in a new academic year I would like to welcome and introduce our new graduate students joining the SFOS
community this fall. The 19 graduate students joining SFOS this September...
Undergraduate enrollment up at SFOS
SFOS has more undergraduate students than ever before, with 51 total undergraduate fisheries students enrolled this fall.
Standouts - Student News
Congratulations to our Spring 2009 graduates!
Congratulations to our Summer 2009 graduates!
Other Student News
Featured Alumna
Joan Braddock, Ph.D. Oceanography, 1989
SFOS alumnus honored by President Obama
President Obama recently awarded SFOS alumnus Dana Hanselman the 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Featured photo
Photo by Pam Goddard
Uinniq Ahgeak (second from left), a B.S. fisheries major, helps sort rockfish with the scientific crew on board
the F/V Vesteraalen as part of her summer internship with the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
