Summer 2026 in review
A lifetime achievement award in aquaculture, a national award for hurricane research, a seat on the United Nations’ World Ocean Assessment expert pool, the University’s nominee for the Frontiers Planet Prize, a first-place poster prize for a doctoral student in cloud physics, five papers in JGR: Solid Earth, AGU Advances, Communications Earth & Environment, Climatic Change and WIREs Climate Change; and six new NSF awards totaling $10.41M, among them a five-year RAPID-MOCHA renewal and a CAREER award for hurricane air–sea physics.
Marine Biology & Ecology
Daniel Benetti receives the U.S. Aquaculture Society’s Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, for a career advancing marine hatchery technologies and offshore aquaculture worldwide and mentoring generations of scientists.
U.S. Aquaculture Society · Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award
Ocean Sciences
Shane Elipot secures a $4.45M NSF renewal of the RAPID-MOCHA mooring array at 26.5°N, carrying the record toward 27 unbroken years of ocean heat and freshwater transport measurements.
NSF Physical Oceanography · Aug 2026 – Jul 2031
Award received
Honored with the U.S. Aquaculture Society’s Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, for a career advancing marine hatchery technologies and offshore aquaculture worldwide and mentoring generations of scientists.
Award received
Recipient of the American Meteorological Society’s 2027 Joanne Simpson Tropical Meteorology Research Award, for advancing the fundamental understanding of hurricane dynamics and improving forecasting operations.
Appointment
Named to the UN Pool of Experts for the World Ocean Assessment, representing Canada and the University of Miami on ocean databases, biodiversity and climate change.
Nomination
Selected as the University of Miami’s nominee for the Frontiers Planet Prize, for “Next-generation AI-driven models: Predicting marine and atmospheric impacts on tropical populations.”
Award received Student
Awarded 1st Place Poster Presentation at the American Meteorological Society’s 17th Conference on Cloud Physics — the field’s premier U.S. gathering, held once every four years. Ph.D. student in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, advised by Prof. Paquita Zuidema.
| Principal Investigator | Project & program | Total award |
|---|---|---|
| S. ElipotOcean Sciences | Continued Observations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: the RAPID-MOCHA Array NSF Physical Oceanography · Award 2618670 | $4,452,348Aug 2026 – Jul 2031 |
| B. Lund & H. C. GraberOcean Sciences | X-Band Radar Data Processing and Support for the Academic Research Fleet NSF Oceanographic Technical Services · Award 2611904 · both at CSTARS | $1,988,225Jul 2026 – Jun 2031 |
| J. D. HappellOcean Sciences | Radioisotope Monitoring Program for the United States Academic Research Fleet NSF Oceanographic Technical Services · Award 2614137 | $1,251,550May 2026 – Apr 2031 |
| C. GastonAtmospheric Sciences | Collaborative Research: Unique Sources of Carbonaceous Aerosol in the North Atlantic Basin — Impacts of African Smoke, Dust, and Marine Emission on Physicochemical Properties NSF Atmospheric Chemistry · Award 2533043 | $1,019,893Aug 2026 – Jul 2029 |
| G. LinMarine Geosciences | Collaborative Research: CAIG: Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Discovery of Fluid–Rock Interactions in Dense Seismic Arrays NSF Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence and Geoscience · Award 2616414 | $995,304Aug 2026 – Jul 2029 |
| M. CurcicOcean Sciences | CAREER: Quantifying Wind-driven Wave Tearing and its Impacts on Hurricane Air–Sea Drag NSF CAREER, Physical & Dynamic Meteorology · Award 2543464 | $699,429Jul 2026 – Jun 2031 |
| Total | Six new NSF awards | $10,406,749 |
New NSF awards to Rosenstiel School investigators, May 15 – September 15, 2026. Amounts are NSF total intended award amounts per the official NSF award record. For a collaborative award they are the total across all participating institutions.
JGR: Solid Earth · September 9, 2026Student
When two parallel slabs sink in the same direction, the plate above them speeds up and its axis of rotation can swing by some 3,600 km. A torque balance traces most of that shift to the shrinking area of plate left to drag against the mantle.
Guo Z, Holt AF & Gürer D — Zonglin Guo’s first first-author paper, with Prof. Adam Holt.
Marine Geosciencesdoi: 10.1029/2026JB034505
AGU Advances · September 2, 2026Student
Microbes in the oxygen-free brine of Red Sea pools concentrate metals in the sediment up to 117 times above background, and the signature persists into the rock record; a drained pool in the Hume Deep shows the pools themselves fill and empty over millennia.
Chakraborty MI, Shernisky H, Pollier CGL, Oehlert AM, et al. — Morgan Chakraborty’s work with Prof. Sam Purkis.
Marine Geosciencesdoi: 10.1029/2026AV002570
Communications Earth & Environment · August 29, 2026Student
Smoke from African fires brightens the southeast Atlantic cloud deck a thousand kilometers offshore — but the weather that carries it down to sea level also thins the deck, canceling the gain.
Tatro T & Zuidema P — Tyler Tatro’s work with Prof. Paquita Zuidema.
Atmospheric Sciencesdoi: 10.1038/s43247-026-03995-x
Climatic Change · July 30, 2026Student
A fifth of the world’s weather stations now see chronic heat — 90 or more dangerous days a year — and one in twenty crossed that line between 1993 and 2023.
Fanning A, Mach KJ, Cruz M & Clement AC — from Ashley Fanning’s UM undergraduate thesis, advised by Prof. Amy Clement.
Atmospheric SciencesEnvironmental Science & Policydoi: 10.1007/s10584-026-04254-w
WIREs Climate Change · July 24, 2026
An invited review of scenario planning in climate adaptation worldwide, and of what would make it transformative rather than incremental.
Mach KJ, Siders AR, Hino M, et al. — with UM co-authors Agopian A, Larson Mohr K, Niemann-Morris J & Tavarez I.
Environmental Science & Policydoi: 10.1002/wcc.70084
Publications, grants, honors, presentations, fieldwork, outreach and media coverage are all welcome. Send a sentence or two, with a link if you have one.
On the Rise · Research Wins & Highlights · Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, University of Miami · September 2026
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