Image ![Coastal research landscape used as the Northmoor University hero image.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2026-01/camilo-botia-k4vFDPJoDZk-unsplash.1600x1200.jpg.avif?itok=ujHvC8nC) Acronym OES Ocean and Earth Sciences covers the physics, chemistry and geology of the ocean and the coast, and the climate science that increasingly runs through all three. We operate R/V *Cascadia Strait*, which shapes both what we can do and how we teach. ## What we work on **Shelf circulation and exchange.** How water crosses the boundary between the continental shelf and the open ocean, and why a large share of the total exchange happens in short events that routine sampling misses. The work relies on moorings, autonomous gliders and ship time in combination. **Carbonate chemistry.** Acidification as it is actually experienced in coastal water, where daily and seasonal swings are far larger than the long-term trend, and where the organisms that matter most are living inside that variability. **Paleoceanography.** Reconstructing past ocean states from sediment cores, with a current focus on the last interglacial and a core that disagrees productively with the regional picture. **Regional sea level and coastal climate.** Turning global projections into numbers a planner can act on, and working out how to present uncertainty so that it informs a decision instead of stopping one. **Estuarine and environmental chemistry.** Contaminant transport in estuaries, including the microplastic survey that changed where the regional monitoring program samples. ## Teaching Every undergraduate in the department goes to sea. First-year students get a day trip; by the third year students run their own sampling stations. The programs require a data analysis course because the science is not doable without one, a requirement the department argued for and has never regretted. ## Working with us We supervise doctoral and master's students in physical, chemical and geological oceanography, in climate science, and in coastal resilience. Ship time for external researchers is available when the teaching and research schedule allows. Director [Dr. Elena Reyes](/person/dr-elena-reyes) Faculty [Dr. Elena Reyes](/person/dr-elena-reyes) [Dr. Tobias Wren](/person/dr-tobias-wren) [Dr. Hana Vasquez](/person/dr-hana-vasquez) [Dr. Farida Haddad](/person/dr-farida-haddad) [Dr. Clara Ndungu](/person/dr-clara-ndungu) [James McAllister](/person/james-mcallister) [Oliver Brandt](/person/oliver-brandt) Programs [Oceanography](/program/oceanography) [Marine Geoscience](/program/marine-geoscience) [Environmental Science](/program/environmental-science) [Oceanography](/program/oceanography) [Coastal Resilience](/program/coastal-resilience) Facilities [R/V Cascadia Strait](/facility/r-v-cascadia-strait) Location Halloran Building, floors one to three Contact info Department office: Halloran Building 118. General inquiries or (360) 555-0120. Ship time on R/V Cascadia Strait is arranged with Oliver Brandt, .