On March 12th, 2021, 1-2 PM UTC, we had Jim Costopulos, CEO and Founder of Global Oceans, who talked about The Future of Ocean Science: Building Scale and International Collaboration. The Moderator was Charles J. Vörösmarty, Founding Director of the Environmental Sciences Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

The intensity of scientific research required for understanding global-scale mechanisms of climate change, ocean biodiversity, and human impact on our ocean; and for modeling, mapping, and monitoring Earth system states in the deep sea, atmosphere, and polar regions, will require an expanded array of scientific infrastructure and global collaboration. Autonomous and remote observation technologies are helping to achieve this, but there are crucial observations and research that can only be achieved by scientists working at sea on scientific vessels.

Global Class research vessels, however, are a resource that is contracting rather than expanding. In an era of continuing resource and funding constraints, can a sufficient 21st century agenda for ocean science, international collaboration, and regional capacity building be enabled without being tethered to the high capital expense, fixed costs, and silo’d administration typical of institution-owned dedicated research vessels?

Global Oceans is an operationally-focused nonprofit corporation that has developed the Modular Adaptive Research Vessel (MARV) model to integrate time-chartered offshore service vessels, modular lab and workspace systems, and remote logistics support, for mobilizing fully-functional scientific platforms. This approach is regionally deployable, dynamically scalable, non-capital intensive, and responsive to capacity building needs and opportunities. It is designed to foster international research collaboration and make resource cost-sharing more accessible and efficient.

The presentation outlined the operational basis of the MARV model, and will illustrate the rationale and developing applications where this flexible, adaptive infrastructure capacity can uniquely “open the aperture” of what is both possible and crucially needed for a global-scale ocean science enterprise that can effectively address the challenges we face.

Speaker

Jim Costopulos

The Future of Ocean Science: Building Scale and International Collaboration

Jim Costopulos is the CEO and Founder of Global Oceans, a US based nonprofit corporation dedicated to supporting ocean science and exploration. Prior to Global Oceans he was President and equity partner at an industrial products distribution firm focusing on supply chain integration and product management for major industrial clients, and earlier work included start-up ventures and senior management with several manufacturing companies. His experience in supply chain strategy, global logistics and international business partnerships was instrumental in developing the Global Oceans operational model to optimize the use of commercial maritime assets for ocean research. Mr. Costopulos holds a BS degree from the University of California, Irvine in Biology where he published his undergraduate research on marine polychaete physiology; with graduate work in marine aquaculture systems and invertebrate physiology at San Diego State University and Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute.

Moderator

Charles J. Vörösmarty

Charles J. Vörösmarty, Ph.D., is the Founding Director of the Environmental Sciences Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). His research focuses on the development of computer models and geospatial data sets used in synthesis studies of the interactions among the water cycle, climate, biogeochemistry, and anthropogenic activities.

He is spearheading efforts to develop global-scale indicators of water stress and is working with chief United Nations delegates who are negotiating the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Goals. He has served on a broad array of national panels, including the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (appointed by Presidents Bush and Obama), the NASA Earth Science Subcommittee, the National Research Council Committee on Hydrologic Science as Chair, a member of the NRC Review Committee on the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Science Foundation’s Arctic System Science Program Committee, and the Arctic HYDRA International Polar Year Planning Team.

Relevant Links:

• Global Oceans website.
• Global Seamounts Project web page.
• Global Seamounts Project video.
• Atmospheric Instrumentation Suite (AIS) Project web page.
• Global Oceans Deep-Sea Vehicles web page.
• Article in ROV Planet magazine: “Global Oceans to Relaunch Three Iconic 6000-Meter Deep-Sea Vehicles”.
• ASRC/CUNY Environmental Sciences web page.

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.