FROM THE TOS PRESIDENT

Paula Bontempi

Hello TOS Members. I would like to share the joint statement with which the AGU, ASLO, and TOS Presidents opened the Honors Plenary Session at the recent 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting. Thank you to all who were able to attend. 

Best wishes, Paula

______________

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Ocean Science Meeting 2026 Awards Plenary Session. AGU President, Dr. Brandon Jones, ASLO President, Dr. Susanne Menden-Deuer, and I congratulate the respective society awardees and honorees. You are critical contributors to moving ocean science, technology, and education forward. You truly inspire our next generation of explorers, educators, and professionals.

Community. Resiliency. Perseverance.

It’s easy to lose sight of these things. But there is nothing more powerful than those who embrace the spirit of family. We stand together—a diverse community who are linked by social and professional ties, share a range of perspectives, and support each other.

We’re experiencing record-breaking attendance at this Ocean Sciences Meeting, over 6000 attendees strong, and we thank the city of Glasgow and the United Kingdom for hosting us. This week, we focus on sustaining global scientific collaboration, focusing on new frontiers in ocean science, technology, and education. Our respective societies are committed to maintaining international partnerships and engagement exemplified by AGU’s observer status through several UN bodies, supporting U.S. participation in the IPCC through the Academic Alliance, and our societies are collaborating with AMS to publish climate research in response to the shuttering of the Sixth National Climate Assessment. 

Now, more than ever, the world needs an ocean literate workforce with diverse lived experiences to guide it through the shared challenges and opportunities that lie before us.

As many of you are acutely aware, there are events happening throughout the world that move us to our core. While we cannot control the negativity, the rhetoric, and the claims that go unsubstantiated, we can reassure you that our organizations will always work in concert with our respective members to act in accordance with our core values. We know these challenges won’t resolve themselves immediately, but we want you to know we’re in this together and will work through them side by side.

AGU, ASLO, and TOS have many members who work in and towards diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and justice, and who support and are members of these communities. We reiterate and reaffirm our commitments to our professional guilds working towards a future that promotes scientific excellence and rejects racism, sexism, hate crimes, and discrimination in all forms. We hope all of you do as well, as it takes more than a few people to effect change.

Following such an affirmation is action. We all are aware of and many have witnessed specific groups being targeted to the point that individuals fear for their safety and freedom. We bring about change together, by believing in each other, by listening and hearing each other, and by infusing an ethos of respect into all aspects of our mission. Holding true to our historical scientific principles in life and work are critical to effect change; we stand for fact-based decision making, objectivity in evaluation, and integrity in our research, our reviews, and our actions. Science is a unifying construct, and as scientists, we must continue to examine our language, institutional climates, policies, research practices, and collective power to better understand ways we can deconstruct systemic inequities and construct an equitable global environment.

AGU, ASLO, and TOS stand in support of our early career professionals. You are our future. Without sustained investment in a future professional workforce, the loss of many early career scholars will impact our shared future. A drop in research and development funding and support in academic and other institutions triggers firings of professionals, technical staff, and release of students, who are the next generation of explorers and ocean literate leaders. The ones who are being prepared to dedicate their lives to understanding and protecting our home planet, ensuring global and food security, inventing new technologies, educating the public, fostering new partnerships, and sustainably managing Earth’s resources. These are also the policy writers of the future. Solutions to scientific grand challenges and opportunities of economic prosperity live within their minds, and the future is bleak without their promise.

As professional scientific societies, AGU, ASLO, and TOS stand by our core values—supporting communities that encourage the open expression and exchange of ideas, that are free from all forms of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, and that are welcoming to all members and to those who participate in its activities. In pursuit of this commitment, our societies and the Ocean Sciences Meeting are dedicated to the equality of opportunity and treatment for all participants. 

The power of our societies lies in our ability to stand together as a community and speak with an independent voice. The nature of science is to question what is unknown or unclear. We encourage each of you to continue to speak your art, your song, your words, your signs in any language—it is a gift. 

AGU, ASLO, and TOS are made up of members from all nations. Any individual, business, or organization interested in ocean sciences is encouraged to join and participate in the activities, meetings, and benefits of each society.

We all have a role to play in what happens next in science, technology, and education. The world and the public need data and science. Don’t underestimate your role as an agent of change. The many members of our international organizations must continue to lead a very dedicated community as we implement our future plans with focus and optimism.

Do not lose sight of what you have been called to do.

Across the globe, scientists have united to accomplish extraordinary breakthroughs that benefit humanity—and our work must continue. This has been achieved through a steadfast commitment to scientific integrity and our shared core values of honesty, rigor, transparency, and accountability throughout the entire research lifecycle—from concept to implementation. We must continue to ensure that research remains trustworthy, reproducible, and free from fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism. To uphold integrity is to maintain public trust in science and ensure that scientific evidence is reliable, objective, and free from bias.

Our honorees today certainly demonstrate a lifetime commitment to such values.

With hope in the power of science,

Brandon Jones, President, AGU
Susanne Menden-Deuer, President, ASLO
Paula Bontempi, President, TOS

REGISTRATION AND ABSTRACT SUBMISSION ARE OPEN

We look forward to welcoming you to Ocean Optics XXVII for a week of insight, collaboration, and connection. This event brings together a diverse ocean optics community, including oceanographers, limnologists, optical engineers, Earth observation scientists, resource managers, and policy professionals from across the globe, all united by a shared passion for optics in aquatic environments.

KEY DATES
Early registration ends May 1, 2026
Abstracts are due May 1, 2026

EARLY ONLINE RELEASES

DIY OCEANOGRAPHY • acspype: An Open-Source Python Package for ac-s Data Acquisition and Processing
By I.T. Black et al.

THE OCEANOGRAPHY CLASSROOM • Debates in the Oceanography Classroom: Challenging Misconceptions and Engaging with New Knowledge
By L. Svendsen

CAREER PROFILE • Patricia Delgado, Superintendent,Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary

APPLY-TO-SAIL SUMMER 2026
Atlantic Ocean Seismic Experiment
Aboard R/V Langseth

APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 31, 2026

We are excited to announce an Apply-To-Sail opportunity for US-based undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and early-career scientists to participate in a marine geophysical research cruise in the western Atlantic Ocean aboard R/V Marcus G. Langseth, scheduled for Summer 2026. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is focused on understanding mantle dynamics during incipient seafloor spreading in the Atlantic Ocean after the breakup of Pangea.

DISCO XXX AND PODS XIV

Lihue, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i | December 1–5, 2026

The Dissertations Symposium in Chemical Oceanography (DISCO) and Physical Oceanography Dissertation Symposia (PODS) provide recent graduates, or soon to graduate, PhD-level chemical and physical oceanographers, respectively, with an opportunity to present their dissertation research in front of their professional peers and to forge professional relationships that will facilitate their future research and academic careers.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 1, 2026

APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 30, 2026

The Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire (RRFB) fellowship program supports early-career researchers conducting high-impact scientific fieldwork that directly advances RRFB’s mission: restoring Bonaire’s coral reefs through innovation, science, and community engagement.