News: ERIC AND WENDY SCHMIDT ANNOUNCE NEW $1 BILLION PHILANTHROPIC COMMITMENT TO IDENTIFY, DEVELOP AND SUPPORT GLOBAL TALENT WORKING IN SERVICE OF OTHERS

MENLO PARK, Calif.— Eric and Wendy Schmidt announced today a $1 billion philanthropic commitment to identify and support talent across disciplines and around the world to serve others and help address the world’s most pressing problems. Building on the last 13 years of their family’s philanthropy, led by Wendy Schmidt, the couple has steadily increased … Continued

News: PUBLIC TESTIMONY – UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT SUBCOMMITTEE, DISCUSSING OCEAN EXPLORATION

June 5, 2019: Schmidt Ocean Institute was invited to testify before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Environment Subcommittee to discuss Ocean Exploration. Dr. Carlie Wiener was selected to be one of four witnesses to discuss the current state of the U.S. ocean exploration enterprise (involving public, private and academic/non-profit), … Continued

News: Global Initiative – United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

May 13-15, 2019: Schmidt Ocean Institute was proud to contribute to the first planning meeting for the UN Decade of Ocean Science. The Global Planning Meeting provided a forum to gather approximately 200 thought-leaders/champions/key stakeholders. A mixture of plenary and breakout groups facilitated international, interdisciplinary discussions across sectors (such as: ocean science and technology; ocean … Continued

News: Otherworldly Mirror Pools, New Lifeforms, and Mesmerizing Landscapes Discovered on Ocean Floor

Scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor recently discovered and explored a hydrothermal field at 2,000 meters depth in the Gulf of California where towering mineral structures serve as biological hotspots for life. These newly discovered geological formations feature upside down ‘mirror-like flanges’ that act as pooling sites for discharged fluids. GULF OF CALIFORNIA, … Continued

News: New Undersea Maps Lead to Hydrothermal Vent and Species Discoveries

Autonomous and interactive robotic seafloor mapping systems were used on an expedition aboard research vessel Falkor in the southern Gulf of California, leading scientists to a new hydrothermal vent field and enabling the discovery of new deep-sea organisms. SOUTHERN PESCADERO BASIN, GULF OF CALIFORNIA – A spectacular new hydrothermal vent field, named JaichMatt, has been … Continued

News: Artificial Intelligence Guides Rapid Data-Driven Exploration of Changing Underwater Habitats Mapped onto one of the World’s Largest Multiresolution 3D Photogrammetric Reconstruction of the Seafloor

Researchers aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor used autonomous underwater robots, along with the Institute’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) SuBastian, to acquire 1.3 million high resolution images of the seafloor at Hydrate Ridge, composing them into the largest known high resolution color 3D model of the seafloor. Using unsupervised clustering algorithms, they identified dynamic … Continued

News: Fleet of Aerial, Surface and Underwater Robots Maps Ocean Front

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Using multiple autonomous vehicles simultaneously, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers returns to the United States after exploring the North Pacific  Subtropical front – a sharp boundary where cold fresh waters from the north meet warm salty waters from the south. The fronts are the most conspicuous oceanographic phenomena and … Continued

News: Scientists Voyage To The White Shark Café

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Scientists are a step closer to understanding what draws white sharks each spring to the “White Shark Café”, an offshore aggregation area halfway between Mexico and Hawaii in the Pacific. An interdisciplinary research team from five Institutions led by Stanford University Marine Biologist Dr. Barbara Block, has just completed a month-long … Continued