Barbara Mary Hickey is an Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at the University of Washington. Her research involves field measurements and computational models to understand coastal processes. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Early life and education
Hickey is from Canada.[1] She studied physics at the University of Toronto, where she was encouraged by a Professor to choose a "softer" field, such as Oceanography.[2] She earned her doctoral degree at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1975. Her doctoral research involved studying equatorial processes such as El Niño. She was involved with the first attempt to monitor the equatorial undercurrent using moored buoys.[2]
Research and career
When Hickey started her academic career at the University of Washington she was one of only a handful of women working in physical oceanography in the United States.[3] Hickey combines onshore sampling and offshore measurements with computational models of water movement, salinity and temperature off the coast of Washington. She also studies plankton fluorescence and offshore oxygen.[4] She was involved with several large field and computational programs, including;
RISE, River Influences on Shelf Processes, an interdisciplinary study of the dynamics that govern mixing river and coastal waters.[5]
Her work resulted in the development of sophisticated computer models that could predict the movement of harmful algal blooms.[9][10] In 1988 Hickey was elected President of the Ocean Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union.[11]
Hickey, Barbara M.; Banas, Neil S. (2003). "Oceanography of the U.S. Pacific Northwest Coastal Ocean and estuaries with application to coastal ecology". Estuaries. 26 (4): 1010–1031. doi:10.1007/BF02803360. S2CID52107174.
^"Ann Gargett". MPOWIR. 2010-08-12. 120. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
^ abcDelaney, Peggy (2005). "Women in Oceanography"(PDF). The Oceanography Society. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
^"Barbara Hickey". College of the Environment. Retrieved 2020-02-08.