Professor Greg Ivey, the Chief Scientist for this cruise, is the Deputy Dean of Research in the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics at the University of Western Australia (UWA), a member of the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at UWA, and a member of the Oceans Institute at UWA. As a physical oceanographer, he is interested in quantifying the ocean currents, mixing and transport processes that connect the surrounding open ocean with the emergent coral reef systems and mini-seamounts found on the outer edge of the the Australian North West Shelf (NWS). Professor Ivey has led several projects examining the ocean dynamics of the NWS, a region which experiences tropical cyclone activity in the Australian summer months, but throughout the year experiences strong tidal forcing. These tides are the dominant forcing process and, in combination with the strong, year-round density stratification and complex bathymetry, they generate very strong currents, large amplitude internal waves (internal tides) and intense turbulent mixing. The tidally forced oscillatory flows connect the open ocean with the atoll, reef and lagoon systems of the area, and are Professor Ivey’s focus in the current cruise.
Professor Ivey is currently working on projects on the NWS funded by the Australian Research Council, the Western Australian Marine Science Institute, and the offshore oil and gas industry which has numerous billion-dollar developments on the NWS. The challenge is to undertake engineering developments and to manage the unique marine ecosystems of the region.
Professor Ivey has a B. Engineering and a M. Engineering Science from UWA, and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He has held positions at the National Water Research Institute of Canada and the Australian National University, and been a visiting professor at the Institute de Mecanique de Grenoble, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in the area of physical oceanography, with particular focus on ocean turbulence and mixing, internal waves dynamics, and coastal ocean dynamics.
Cruises:
