Paul Myers, Canada

Paul Myers is a physical oceanographer, professor and senior associate dean research – strategic initiatives, for the Faculty of Science at the University of Alberta. Professor Myers’ current research focuses on the role of freshwater in the oceans, as well as links between the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. This research involves a combination of the analysis of oceanographic data with numerical modeling. Present research includes a focus on very high resolution and the role that the mesoscale and sub-mesoscale has on the large-scale circulation. Specific scientific questions are related to the impact of freshwater in these basins, explanations for observed variability at inter-annual and inter-decadal time scales as well as the linkages between these basins. His main geographical areas of research are the Arctic Ocean, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Bay, the sub-polar North Atlantic and the Labrador Sea. He is also interested in the role of Ocean-Cryosphere links and the how the ocean may impact, and may be impacted by, the enhanced melting presently occurring on the Greenland Ice Sheet. For the Labrador Sea, he was the lead PI of the NSERC Climate Change and Atmospheric Research Network, VITALS (Ventilation, Interactions and Transports Across the Labrador Sea), which answered fundamental questions about how the deep ocean exchanges carbon dioxide, oxygen, and heat with the atmosphere through the Labrador Sea. He is a former president of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, and has been the chair of the Canadian National Committee for SCOR, as well as Secretary for SCOR at the international level (2018-2022). In 2021 he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Professor Myers has a large and active research group, which he takes an active role in advising, leading to him winning a University of Alberta Graduate Student Association’s Outstanding Supervisor Award.