MARINE SCIENCE OVERVIEW

The University of Southern Mississippi Department of Marine Science began in the mid-1980’s when the state assigned the university a leadership role in marine science. Initially called the Center for Marine Science, the department established multi-disciplinary graduate programs in marine science. DMS marine science degree programs (M.S. and Ph.D. in marine science) emphasize a cross-discipline approach in which all entering students obtain a working understanding of the four major fields of marine science: physical oceanography, geological oceanography, biological oceanography, and marine chemistry. This approach to educating competent marine scientists has been embraced by many of this nation’s most successful oceanographic institutions.  The department also offers an intensive M.S. program in hydrographic science. The hydrographic science program has received Category A certification from the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)/International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). The FIG/IHO International Advisory Board is responsible for reviewing the "standards of competence" for hydrographic surveyors.   For further information on these programs, jump to our Academics page.

Departmental faculty cover a broad sweep of marine and environmental research interests. The department currently has eleven faculty covering a broad spectrum of marine sub-disciplines ranging from physical oceanography and data assimilation to ocean optics, marine sediments and micropaleontology, ocean productivity, geochemistry and trace chemical analysis, hydrographic science, and remote sensing. Adjunct faculty provide additional expertise in fields such as ocean acoustics and numerical modeling. Faculty research projects are global in scope with on-going projects in such diverse locations as the Southern Ocean, the Great Australian Bight, Lake Michigan, and Rocky Mountain National Park as well as local environments such as the Louisiana Shelf, Mississippi River, and Pearl River delta.  For further information on our faculty, jump to our Faculty page.

The Department of Marine Science is located at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center, some 75 miles south of the USM main campus (which is in Hattiesburg, MS). The Stennis Space Center is on the Mississippi-Louisiana border near the coast and is the nation’s key large rocket testing facility. It is also home to a variety of federal marine and environmental operations including the Naval Oceanographic Office, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Program and Office of Pesticide Programs, and NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center. The interaction with these federal programs is a key reason for the location of DMS at the space center. All DMS graduate courses are taught at the Stennis Space Center.

The Department of Marine Science is part of Southern Miss’College of Science and Technology.  The marine sciences are represented within the college by faculty and staff members from the Department of Marine Science; the Department of Coastal Sciences, located at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs; the Department of Biological Sciences in Hattiesburg; and the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center in Biloxi.  DMS faculty also interact with other Southern Miss faculty in the College of Science & Technology on the main Hattiesburg campus.

Further details about DMS graduate programs, faculty, and location can be found elsewhere on this site.