Kipp Shearman College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
Tristan Peery Student | College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
In 2004, Tristan Peery was living in Florida and working as a marine environmental consultant, taking water temperature and salinity measurements that illustrated the physical state of the ocean. He was doing what he wanted, but there was just one thing. Peery had not yet gone beyond a bachelor’s degree in science. “I saw a glass ceiling for those who didn’t have higher degrees,” Peery says. “And I wanted to see what research had to offer for career opportunities.”
The excellent reputation OSU’s oceanography program has — even in Florida — was enough to attract Peery. And then he met Kipp Shearman and learned about gliders.
“Kipp’s a great guy all around. He’s excited about the research he’s doing. He’s taking water quality monitoring to a completely different level. It seemed like a good fit.”
Shearman was impressed, too, with Peery’s experience with instrumentation, his personality as well as his dedication and determination. Peery took a class in differential equations to bolster his math background before he was accepted to OSU’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences in summer 2006.
Shearman brought Peery into his COAS group to study ocean conditions using robotic, rocket-like autonomous gliders, which cruise through the coastal ocean off Oregon and measure everything from temperature, salinity, optical properties, chlorophyll and — one of the major focuses of the research — oxygen levels in the water. “Gliders are a newer technology, and I think that was one of the selling points of the job for Tristan,” Shearman says.
OSU is a world-leader in coastal oceanography, and Shearman and his lab (the OSU Glider Group) are breaking new ground by maintaining a small fleet of gliders sampling Oregon’s coastal ocean 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The gliders are programmed to surface every 6 hours, call Shearman’s lab and provide reams of data to be analyzed.
There’s so much data, in fact, that Shearman likens it to taking a drink of water from a fire hose. This is where Peery enters the equation. His job as a master’s student was to devise a way to integrate all of the information the gliders provide. And because gliders are such a new and revolutionary technology, Peery’s additional responsibilities were intensive. “It put Tristan, a graduate student in his first year, flying a $100,000 piece of oceanographic equipment,” says Shearman.
This autonomy is one of the reasons Peery admires Shearman as a mentor. “Students look at Kipp as someone who’s approachable and who’s easy to talk to,” says Peery. “He’s one of those people who tries to help you along your own way. And that’s huge.”
For Shearman, mentoring students is important because they can provide energy and focus to the research and the work that colleagues cannot. “Tristan’s research will be beneficial to all groups operating gliders, and I wouldn’t be able to do that on my own,” Shearman says. “Being a professor, you want to make impacts, to do things that make a difference. Students are an effective way to do that.”
Peery, who graduated in winter 2007, is currently a full-time faculty research assistant at COAS, running an electromagnetics lab under marine geology and geophysics professor Adam Schultz. The focus of Peery’s research is a long-term monitoring program that measures the magnetic and electrical fields in the Earth’s crust. Although he finds himself on solid ground, Peery’s work is not far removed from oceanography, which he intends to return to in the future.
“COAS and Kipp Shearman’s guidance prepared me well for my position,” Peery says. “The college and Student Programs Office are stocked with world-class people who are genuinely interested in helping you better yourself.”
