More than a year after hurricane-strength winds toppled BIOS’s 75-foot (23-meter) atmospheric science research tower, a new tower was erected on Tudor Hill, just in time for Christmas.

They came with robots in their arms and dreams of undersea victories. On April 30, more than 100 Bermudian students met at the National Sports Centre pool to compete in the island’s second annual Mid Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) underwater robotics challenge, with lead donor support from HSBC.

Twenty-eight teams from nine schools and educational organizations will converge on the National Sports Centre on Saturday, April 30, for the 2016 MATE Bermuda Regional ROV Challenge. The program, hosted by BIOS, is part of the Mid Atlantic Robotics IN Education Program (MARINE), with lead donor support from HSBC.

BIOS training leads to diverse careers in marine and atmospheric sciences, and beyond

This spring, Quentin Lewis, a long time captain for the BIOS-operated research vessel Atlantic Explorer, joined the staff as the Institute’s marine superintendent. Lewis, who is 54 and hails from North Carolina, replaced Ron Harelstad in the position. Lewis is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marines Academy, spent over a decade as the marine superintendent for Duke University, and ran a small business delivering vessels on the East and Gulf coasts. Lewis’ wife, Lisa, is a regional business manager for a group of radio stations in North Carolina. They have an 11-year-old daughter, Samantha. Here Lewis details his involvement with BIOS, his family’s maritime history, and the projects he’s involved with as he begins full time employment with the Institute.

Reef scientist Eric Hochberg is principal investigator in a NASA field campaign that will survey more of the world’s coral reefs than ever before, and in greater detail. Credit Eric Hochberg

Found along the west coast of North America, red sea urchins (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) call the ocean bottoms home. There, these spiky creatures feed on seaweed and kelp, and are often found in groups. While they may face predation from sea stars and crabs, the urchins, when left to their own devices, age phenomenally well. In fact, some researchers even report their lifespans as being over 100 years long.

Damian Grundle, on board the research vessel Atlantic Explorer, recently joined the BIOS faculty.

Climatologist Hans Christian Steen-Larsen joined BIOS in March as an adjunct scientist, to continue and expand his innovative research at the Tudor Hill Marine Atmospheric Observatory. Currently a researcher at the Center for Ice and Climate at the University of Copenhagen, Steen-Larsen has traversed the globe gathering data to reconstruct past climates and to improve current climate models.  At BIOS, he uses clues embedded in water molecules to better understand the climactic processes that drive evaporation from the ocean.

The GREAT BARRIER REEF, transposed to North America’s west coast, would stretch from Baja California to British Columbia. “How do you study that big of an area by doing hour-long hikes?,” says Eric Hochberg, a marine biologist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. Yet for a long time, scientists studying coral have essentially had to do just that. Since the 1950s, says Hochberg, the state of the art has been a mask and a scuba tank. Scientists studying coral reefs do so an hour at a time, until their air runs out.