Growing up in Indiana, geography professor Tommy Dickey never saw an ocean until he graduated from college. Even so, tornadoes, hurricanes, monsoons, and anything else related to the ocean and atmosphere fascinated him. After receiving undergraduate degrees in physics and math, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and met people doing work in oceanography. Even more fascinated by the oceans, he returned to graduate school at Princeton University to study geo-physical fluid dynamics, the dynamics of the atmosphere, and the ocean.

Like other scientists, he brings his research into the classroom to expose his students to "real-time, real life stuff." He’s studied hurricanes near Bermuda and Cape Cod, monsoons in the Arabian Sea, pollution off the coasts of California and Hawaii, and El Niño and La Niña conditions in the equatorial Pacific. His research group utilizes new technologies including robotic underwater vehicles.

"Oceanography is about to be revolutionized by new technologies and computer modeling," Dickey says. "It will provide some fantastic intellectual voyages for future generations."

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