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| Robin Muench obtained his early collegiate educational preparation in physics (AB from Bowdoin College in 1964) and in earth sciences (MA from Dartmouth College in 1966). This background prepared him for his PhD studies in physical oceanography at the University of Washington (PhD awarded in 1970). Dr. Muench first went to sea as an oceanographer in 1965 when he participated in a research cruise to the Greenland Sea aboard a US Navy icebreaker. He has since been continuously active as a participant in field-based physical oceanographic research in both the Arctic and in the Antarctic seas. His research reflects a holistic approach that attempts to assess a given physical system as a connected whole. He has addressed problems ranging from small-scale turbulent mixing to ocean basin boundary currents. He has also investigated short-term variability due to turbulence and physical instabilities, as well as interannual variability over ocean scales. His present research focus is on small-scale processes related to ocean turbulence and mixing. This interest is manifest in his current heavy involvement in turbulence-related studies both in the Arctic (boundary turbulence studies associated with the Arctic Shelf-Basin Interaction project) and in the Southern Ocean (Southern Ocean GLOBEC and ANSLOPE) and is also reflected in his present chairmanship of SCOR Working Group 121 on Ocean Mixing. Dr. Muench has served in a number of oceanographic research community roles including Oceanography Section Editor for Eos, Associate Editor for Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, President of the International Association for Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO), and ex officio member of the Executive Committee for the Scientific Council on Ocean Research (SCOR) and co-Chair of iAnZone, a SCOR-Affiliated Organization. He is co-founder, with Dr. Gary S.E. Lagerloef, of Earth & Space Research. Current Research Projects:
Special Interests: Physical oceanographic research in both polar regions, with emphasis
on: mesoscale process, their dynamics and coupling to larger scales; double-diffusive processes;
boundary layer mixing processes; free convective processes including both open ocean and
shelf convection; shelf-slope plume flows; cross-shelf exchanges; and interannual change.
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