catamaran utilized by the Rosenstiel School and named for
University of Miami professor
F.G. Walton Smith whose initial marine-related research led to the school's 1943 founding. May 2023. satellite photo of
Little Salt Spring in
North Port, Florida, which houses Rosenstiel School research facilities, field laboratories, and dormitories. The dock over the water is used by
research divers for
underwater excavations. As of 2008, the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School receives $50 million in annual external research funding. Laboratories at Virginia Key are equipped with specialized instruments including a salt-water wave tank, the five-tank Conditioning and Spawning Systems, multi-tank
Aplysia Culture Laboratory, Controlled Corals Climate Tanks, and DNA analysis equipment. The Richmond Campus' CSTARS provides Rosenstiel School with a near-real-time weather satellite downlink. Rosenstiel School also operates Bimini Biological Field Station, an array of oceanographic high-frequency radar along the
U.S. east coast, and its Bermuda aerosol observatory. Research projects at Rosenstiel School are in the domain of atmospheric and marine sciences and include: • Coral reef research, focusing on corals survival in a new climate conditions;
coral reef protection • Field programs evaluating trace gas chemistry and transport • The aquaculture program • Climate change modeling • Tropical weather, climate, and atmospheric/oceanic circulations • Air-sea interactions research through buoys,
remote sensing, analysis in situ, a wave tank laboratory, numerical modeling; • Volcanoes in the Pacific, Everglades water level measurements and subsidence through satellite images • Studies of coastal quality and their impact on human health. Rosenstiel School's Marine Affairs and Policy Division conducts
archaeological and
paleontological research at
Little Salt Spring in
Sarasota County. The site was donated to the University of Miami in 1982. Rosenstiel School also hosts the National Center for Coral Reef Research (NCORE), which works to understand, conserve and manage coral reefs worldwide. Rosenstiel School has focused significant resources to studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its long term environmental effect. The school is an active member of the State of Florida's Oil Spill Academic Task Force that works with the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection on spill issues. In the summer of 2010, a CIMAS team working with the research vessel Walton Smith was able to document a long oil plume extending toward
Dry Tortugas. The quality of the school is evaluated through peer-reviewed competition for faculty research grants. In addition, each year, the
National Science Foundation conducts a nationwide student competition for Graduate Research Award Fellowship, and in 2010, five Rosenstiel School students received such awards with two additional honorable mentions.
Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies Since 1977, the
Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), a scientific partnership between the
University of Miami and
NOAA, has been studying climate change, air-sea interactions and coastal ecology. ==Notable faculty==