The Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University was established in 1960 by Dr. Jacques Zaneveld, back when the University was still the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary. Ever since, the department has been home to research scientists whose origins, much like the scope of their research, span the globe.

Our location at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay —  where the confluence of the James, Elizabeth, and Lafayette Rivers meets the Atlantic Ocean — provides an excellent opportunity to foster cross-disciplinary research into questions of water quality, phytoplankton bloom development, and the interaction between marine biology and water chemistry.

Yet the research conducted within our department is not restricted to Norfolk’s local waterways. Our faculty are deeply interested in questions about the greater Earth system and how the complex interactions between different components of this system — both natural and human-induced — may change in the future. These questions take our faculty all around the globe: from the ice-covered mountains of Greenland to the carbonate-rich seabeds of the tropics, from the frigid seas of the Arctic to the gaping polynyas of Antarctica.

The Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Science is a nexus for global interdisciplinary research, where we advance research into the relationship between the biological, chemical, physical, and geological components of our planet. We are deeply committed to educating the next generation of problem-solvers and critical-thinkers, and we endeavor to promote science and education in service to our community, our commonwealth, and our planet.

For more information about our department, as well as our undergraduate and graduate programs, please visit our website.

Photograph sourced from Newcomb & Boyd Consultants and Engineers (retrieved 11 May 2018).