Matthew Alford joins UVic as the 2024 Fulbright Canada Research Chair

October 17, 2024

On February 1, 2025, Dr. Matthew Alford of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego will join UVic as the 2024 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Healthy People and Planet. Alford is a professor of physical oceanography and head of the Oceans and Atmospheres section at Scripps.

“I have spent most of my career passionately trying to understand the basic physics of the ocean through interesting seagoing observations,” he says. “Now, though, like so many people today living in our rapidly changing climate, I feel the pull to do more.”

During his four-month position at UVic, Alford will work toward improving climate predictions through robotic measurements of ocean mixing. He’ll be collaborating with Dr. Jody Klymak of the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, which will be his academic home away from home. Klymak is the principal investigator in the Canadian-Pacific Robotic Ocean Observing Facility, a research partnership with Rockland Scientific and co-PI Dr. Stephanie Waterman of UBC. Another bonus from Alford’s point of view is the opportunity to work more closely with the Pacific branch of the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing Initiative. 

And Alford isn’t going to let the robots have all the fun. He also plans to explore ocean turbulence firsthand from the deck of a surfboard.