Oceanology

The Department of Oceanology at the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University was founded in 1953 on the initiative of Professor N. N. Zubov. Its first head was prof. A. D. Dobrovolsky, who leaded the Department until 1987. Afterwards his duties were assigned to prof. O. I. Mamaev, who was at this position until 1994. From 1994 to 2006, the Department was led by Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, prof. S. S. Lappo. Nowadays, the Department of Oceanology is headed by the Dean of the Faculty of Geography, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Anatolyevich Dobrolyubov.

The Department works in close cooperation with leading Russian marine research organizations. Its principal areas of research are as following:

• The ocean’s role in long-term climate fluctuations. Large-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction

• Global ocean circulation, freshwater balance of the oceans, meridional transfer of heat and freshwater components in the oceans

• Water masses of the oceans, methods of their analysis, climatic variability of intermediate and deep waters parameters

• Sea ice

• Circulation in the coastal areas of the seas. Numerical modeling of coastal circulation and wind waves.

• Physical properties of sea water

• Water structure of the White, Caspian, Black Sea and Arctic seas, the variability of their chemical and physical characteristics under the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors

• Environmental problems of Russian seas

The department provides training in the following areas:

• Track 05.03.04 “Hydrometeorology” profile “Oceanology” at the level of higher education bachelor’s degree with the qualification “bachelor”

• Track 05.04.04 “Hydrometeorology” profile “Oceanology” at the level of higher education Master’s degree with the qualification “Master”

• Postgraduate studies in “Oceanology” (geographical sciences) full-time (3 years) and part-time (4 years).

Department staff