BIOS Appoints Interim Director
Dr. Nicholas Bates has been named interim director of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences [BIOS] following the resignation of Dr. Tony Knap in November.
Dr. Bates, who has been associated with BIOS for more than 25 years, holds the position of Associate Director of Research at the East End research facility and has been a Senior Scientist there since 2002.
He specialises in marine biogeochemistry, focusing on oceanic carbon dioxide and nitrogen cycle dynamics in particular. His studies include the carbon cycle in the North Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans as well as ocean acidification.
Dr. Bates studied geology as a university student at King’s College, in London. After graduating in 1985 he discovered his passion was for natural carbon—its cycles, the role it plays in the earth’s planetary cycles and the ways in which anthropogenic [human released] carbon impacts climate.
From the outset, Dr. Bates was interested in the way in which carbon is absorbed and used by the ocean. Dr. Bates has been instrumental in the early stages and subsequent development of the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study [BATS] project.
BATS is the longest continual record of ocean physics, biology and chemistry, and his research has provided a unique picture of changes in ocean chemistry in the North Atlantic Ocean surrounding Bermuda.
Dr. Bates’ association with Bermuda and BIOS stretches over 25 years. He first came to Bermuda in 1986 as a volunteer technician at BIOS, and while on the island he met his wife Margaret. After completing a Masters Degree at Brock University in Southern Ontario in the field of Earth Sciences, he began his doctoral research at BIOS in 1990 and went on to receive his Ph.D. in Oceanography [Chemical and Biological] from the University of Southampton in 1995. He is currently an adjunct professor at the College of Marine and Earth Sciences at the University of Delaware.
In addition to his research at BIOS that is focused on the oceans around Bermuda, Dr. Bates is involved in projects throughout the globe, from Pole to Pole including the Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean.
He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including science journals such as Nature and Science, and many other scientific publications. This research has focused on how the global ocean absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide, climatechange, and the impacts of ocean acidification.
In 2009, Dr. Bates contributed to a chapter for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature [WWF] report focused on the critical impacts of climate change in the Arctic. The report, which includes six chapters by leading international scientists, was prepared for the United Nations FrameWork Convention on Climate Change, in Copenhagen [COP15].
Recently, Dr. Bates has contributed to the 4th Assessment and to the forthcoming 5th Assessment’s of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. He is a member of numerous science committee groups and he is also a member of the US Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group [CCSSG] for the U.S. federal government Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group [CCIWG].
Read More About
Category: All, Environment
