With 71 percent of Earth’s surface covered by oceans, the study of oceanography has become one of the most important avenues of research, not only to our country but to the world. Although we have sent explorers to the moon, the ocean is now known as the “new frontier.”

Not so long ago, it was thought the oceans would be able to supply food for upcoming generations. Today, however, overfishing, pollution and scientific discoveries have proved us wrong. Also, there is not much water that is fit to drink. Water is fast becoming the “new gold.”

Stefan Gary is one of the up-and-coming scientists who recognizes the plight of the world with regard to food and water. Readers might recall reading about him, the son of Martine and Dennis Gary of Riverside, in this column in the past.

It was 2002. Stefan Gary had earned degrees in engineering and art history from Swarthmore College in Philadelphia.

Rather than immediately continuing in college studying for a master’s degree, he entered service in the U.S. Peace Corps. From September 2002 to December 2004, he taught English and physics at a technical high school in Moshi, Tanzania. (His father called it “MIT” for “Moshi Institute of Technology”.)

In order to “break the ice” when he introduced himself to the Tanzanian youngsters, he entertained them with his ability to juggle. He lived in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro and maintained climbing equipment primarily to make the climb up the mountain for the classes. He learned Swahili, adding to the French and Spanish he already knew, and learned to purify his own drinking water in a sand-filled barrel.

From January 2005 to June 2006, he once again returned to academia, earning a master’s degree in theoretical and applied mechanics, a division of the department of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He then spent June to August 2006 hiking the most remote section of the Pacific Rim Trail and climbed Mount Whitney, America’s highest mainland mountain.

From September 2006 to August 2008, Stefan won a teaching assistantship at Duke University, doing course work and research leading to his passing the preliminary exams for a Ph.D. in oceanography.

Today, Stefan Gary is in Kiel, Germany, working in the field of oceanography. He is armed with the work he did toward his thesis in the modeling of large eddy currents (circular currents hundreds of miles across) in the North Atlantic Ocean.

He writes, “I am currently a visiting scholar at the marine science institute (IfM-GEIOMAR, www.ifm-geomar.de) which involves a lot of analysis of computer model data. This data is similar (but not the same) as the model runs done for the (International Panel on Climate Change report).”

“Frankly,” he said, “I’m more than a little envious of the oceangoing (rather than modeling focused) scientists. Spending time at sea is neat! I’ve been on one research cruise so far and despite mild seasickness when the waves began to get big, I would like to go back at least a couple times. The sunsets, sunrises, brilliant stars and camaraderie of a cruise make it totally worth it.”

Though not on the seas, Gary still has an interesting project he is working on.

“I’m in the middle of taking water samples from big, gray bottles, a part of a 24 bottle array that is lowered to depths of 5 km below the surface. Along the way up, the bottles are closed at different depths so we can measure amounts of salt, nutrients, oxygen, etc., in the waters at those depths. It takes four hours to go that deep and another four hours to bring it up. It’s truly amazing how much variation there is in water properties."

Learning about oceanography has changed some assumptions Gary had made about the waters.

“Before studying oceanography I used to think the water in the ocean was all mixed up! No way! It’s really a beautiful and organized circulation system where different water masses are continually sliding over, around each other with a little mixing and transformation (from one watermass to the other) thrown in.”

Despite the fun involved with globetrotting for science, or education in Tanzania, Stefan may be getting a bit homesick. He hopes to make it home to Riverside for the holidays to be with his parents and his younger brother, Jean-Pierre, a graduate of Earlham College in Indiana.

Stefan might be able to answer questions for future oceanographers. He can be reached by e-mail at stefan.gary@duke.edu.