Director's corner

Director's Welcome

The Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction (CMOP) is about opportunity – opportunity to address important national priorities in ocean policy, opportunity to conduct exciting new research and to make scientific research findings matter to society, opportunity to develop novel technologies and to create business opportunities centered around these technologies, opportunity for students, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, and economic background, to access science and technology literacy – in ways that make a difference in their lives, opportunity to export CMOP’s methods and technologies nationally and worldwide, and ultimately opportunity to rally the Pacific Northwest behind an exciting vision for economic development that promises to support our local and regional economies.

For the next decade, the CMOP mission calls for the study of coastal margins, using "space-age like" technologies to facilitate the long-term, integrated description and analysis of coastal-margin physics, chemistry, and biology and to enable an understanding of river-to-ocean ecosystems that will transform our conceptions of integrative science and our visions of how such science can impact local and regional economies. We take on these challenges with gusto.

After all, in many ways, we are at the dawn of ocean exploration as much as we were at the dawn of space exploration when, in 1962, President Kennedy challenged the nation to become bold enough to put a human on the moon. Don’t get me wrong: we have certainly had access to many parts of the ocean, and we do already know much about ocean processes. But many of the ocean's mysteries, which will in no small manner, determine the health of our environment, economy, communities, and individuals into the future, are still hidden from us. The opportunities to learn more are boundless.

For instance, new molecular biology concepts and tools will open a window into ocean microbial communities that – once integrated with up to $0.5B worth of emerging regional and national initiatives in U.S. ocean observing systems – should allow us to set microbes, rather than salmon or spotted owl, as the future “canary in the coal mine” for coastal margins. By looking at a much lower trophic level, we should be able to detect changes in ecosystems much earlier – and hence bring society's goal of the sustainable management of complex regions like the Columbia River basin, much closer to reality.

As one of the less than 20 Science and Technology Centers of the National Science Foundation (NSF), we are asked to achieve more than advances in science and technology. Indeed, it is incumbent upon us to help change paradigms in education, in diversity, and in societal uses of science and technology. A tall order! Over the next few years, CMOP will also strategically address apparently unconnected but in reality truly intertwined issues such as: lifelong education pipelines; science, technology, engineering and math literacy of society in general and underrepresented minorities in particular; university-industry partnerships for economic development; and university-government-NGO partnerships for environmental conflict resolution.

CMOP would not have been possible without the joining of forces of its three lead institutions: Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University, and the University of Washington. The combined strength of these universities is truly awesome. For the success of CMOP as a transformative agent of science, education and society, however, we need to create an even broader science-society partnership. The opportunity for such a partnership to be a decisive agent necessary sweeping changes in ocean policy - see the Pew Ocean Commission, the Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century, and the Joint Ocean Commission - is just too large to miss.

We are excited that industries like Intel and WET labs, government agencies like DOGAMI and NOAA, peer university groups in Oregon, Utah and Maryland, the Saturday Academy K-12 enrichment programs, as well visionary individuals at the Institute for Tribal Government and at Corbett High School, are already working with us. They add much to the core OHSU-OSU-UW partnership.

Whether you represent the interests of academia, government, tribes, economic or environmental interests, or are simply fascinated by the ocean or related science, education or diversity issues, please consider joining us in making CMOP a truly transformative resource for the region and the country.

President Kennedy said "Space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, [...] we set sail [...]". Our rivers, estuaries and coasts are much closer than the moon, but the sailing will be as challenging and - we strongly believe - even more rewarding!

Antonio M. Baptista, Ph.D.
Director, Science and Technology Center for
Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction