Visiting Scholars for 2011
Dr Julian McCreary is UTAS' ANNIMS visiting scholar for 2011 from The University of Hawaii.
Dr. Julian McCreary obtained his Ph.D. in 1977 from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego.
Subsequently, he worked at the Oceanographic Center of Nova Southeastern University from 1972-1999, where he was also the Center's Director and then Dean from 1981-1998. He moved to the University of Hawaii (UH) in 1999 to become the first Director of the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), an international research center devoted to the study of climate, and remained Director until 2009. He is currently a Professor of Oceanography within the IPRC and the UH oceanography department.
From 1989-95, he was an Editor and then Senior Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research (Oceans). From 1995-99, he was Editor and Chief Editor of the Journal of Physical Oceanography.
Dr. McCreary has broad research interests. They include equatorial ocean dynamics, coastal ocean dynamics, overturning circulations in the general ocean circulation, coupled ocean-atmosphere models of climate dynamics, and ecosystem modelling. In recognition of his research accomplishments, he has been elected a Fellow in the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Geophysical Union. In 1996, he was awarded the AMS Sverdrup Gold Medal for "fundamental contributions to the physical understanding of upper-ocean dynamics, including El Niño, the Equatorial Undercurrent, the ocean mixed layer, and eastern boundary currents."
While visiting the University of Tasmania, Dr. McCreary will work closely with scientists there and at CSIRO to study the dynamics of circulations in the South Indian Ocean. In particular, he will study Leeuwin Current dynamics, and its connection to flows in the interior of the South Indian Ocean and to currents south of Australia.