Shelton Gay, PhD

Oceanographer

Shelton is a physical oceanographer and joined the Science Center’s staff in 1994. Since then he has worked on numerous oceanography projects at the Center including EVOS sponsored programs such as Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) (1994-1998) and juvenile Pacific herring habitat studies (2007-2013). He also worked on OSRI’s Nowcast-Forecast observational program for model validation (1998-2004), and a pilot ocean observing program (PWSOOS) from 2004 to 2006. He earned a masters of science in biology at Northern Arizona University in 1984 and completed a PhD in physical oceanography from Texas A&M University in 2013. His prior work as a marine technician included maintaining, testing and deploying oceanographic equipment such as CTD rosettes/profilers and ADCPs for towed, ship-board and moored platforms, as well as working on data analysis and publication writing. Shelton is particularly interested in the physical oceanography of fjords in Prince William Sound (PWS), and his dissertation work focused on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing the physical properties and water exchange processes in these small basins. He is also interested in the effects of seasonal freshwater input from ablation of the large-scale glacial icefields within tidewater glacial fjords on the circulation in PWS, and how this input is being affected by climate change.