[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 175 (Thursday, December 3, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S8376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING DR. JOHN A. KNAUSS

 Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, recently the oceans lost one of 
their greatest champions. With the passing of Dr. John A. Knauss, Rhode 
Island has lost a beloved teacher, a visionary leader, and a brilliant 
scientist. We will all miss him a great deal.
  John's accomplishments are too many to list, but I will note a few.
  In 1966, Dr. Knauss was named to the Commission on Marine Science, 
Engineering, and Resources, where he and his colleagues recommended 
that Congress form a new and independent Federal agency to advance 
marine and atmospheric sciences and better understand our oceans, 
coastlines, and Great Lakes. That agency became the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration, which conducts some of the most 
important ocean science in the world and where John served as 
Administrator from 1989 to 1993.
  Along with Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell and Dr. Athelstan 
Spilhaus, Dr. Knauss developed the National Sea Grant College Program. 
Their model was the country's land grant college system--century-old 
centers of learning that promote better use of America's vast resources 
of land. Pell and Knauss thought that surely our oceans and Great Lakes 
needed a similar network of institutions to conduct coastal and marine 
science and promote conservation of such important natural assets.
  Congress agreed. In 2016, Sea Grant will celebrate 50 years of good 
work on behalf of our oceans and Great Lakes. In recognition of his 
vision and leadership in forming Sea Grant, NOAA named one of its most 
prestigious fellowships in his honor--the NOAA Sea Grant John A. Knauss 
Marine Policy Fellowship. Every year, around 50 of the Nation's top 
graduate and postgraduate students are selected for Knauss fellowships 
to spend a year working on marine and coastal policy issues for the 
Federal agencies and congressional offices in Washington, DC. Two 
Knauss fellows, Adena Leibman and Anna-Marie Laura, have worked in my 
Senate office, helping shape national oceans policy.
  But perhaps his most significant achievement is the Graduate School 
of Oceanography, GSO, at the University of Rhode Island. John founded 
the GSO in 1962, served as its dean for over 25 years, and built it 
into an international leader in marine research. Today, sitting atop a 
bluff overlooking Rhode Island's beautiful Narragansett Bay, the GSO is 
home to 41 faculty and 170 graduate students engaged in cutting-edge 
oceanographic science and pursuing degrees across a range of 
specialties, including the country's first marine affairs and ocean 
engineering programs. It is a true Rhode Island treasure, one we should 
continue investing in, and a testament to Dean Knauss's leadership and 
commitment to our oceans.
  Easily lost among his accomplishments in founding and leading ocean 
research institutions are his personal contributions to oceanography. 
In his dissertation for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, John 
was the first to make comprehensive measurements of the Pacific 
Equatorial Undercurrent--a current that runs for thousands of miles 
beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. He later discovered another 
major current in the Indian Ocean.
  John will be remembered for his collegiality and gift for 
collaboration among the administrators, faculty, students, and other 
researchers and ocean-minded professionals that he touched. Like the 
currents he studied, connecting vast oceans in one system, the 
institutions and programs he created and led bind together leading 
minds in ocean science, bettering our understanding of our ocean world 
and how important it is to us.
  I offer my and Sandra's condolences to the Knauss family, to the 
marine science community, and to the countless people John Knauss 
taught, mentored, and inspired through the years.

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