On October 5 Andrew Dickson gave a talk at a local TEDx event in San Diego, wIth the help of Bill Dewey, George Waldbusser, and Dick Feely (who helped with pictures for his slides). The talk is titled:

“Baby oysters: The canary of the ocean?”

Andrew Dickson is a leading expert in seawater pH, whose research activities are focused on improving our understanding of the carbon dioxide system in seawater, with a current emphasis on the effects of ocean acidification.

He’s currently on The Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE Council; a $1.5 million competition that challenges individuals and teams around the world to build and demonstrate advanced pH sensor technology that will allow us to stem the tide of this chemical imbalance, and return our oceans and sea life to a state of prolonged health.

Since the 1990s, Andrew has played a key role in improving measurements of oceanic CO2 system properties, and leads a program to prepare, certify, and distribute CO2 reference materials to the world’s marine scientists.

Dickson’s research focuses on improving the understanding of the chemistry of carbon dioxide in seawater and upper-ocean biogeochemistry, with a current emphasis on the effects of ocean acidification. He has played a key role in developing quality control standards for oceanic carbon dioxide measurements and leads a program to prepare, certify, and distribute CO2 reference materials to the world’s marine scientists. He has been affiliated with Scripps since 1983.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 14, 1953, Dickson received a B.Sc. degree from the University of Liverpool in 1974, and a Ph.D. from there in 1978. Prior to joining Scripps, Dickson served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Marine Biological Association Laboratory in Plymouth, England and as a postdoctoral associate in the University of Florida, Department of Chemistry. He joined Scripps as an assistant research chemist in 1983, became an associate research chemist in 1991 and a professor-in-residence of marine chemistry in 2006.

Dickson’s laboratory participates in repeat hydrographic cruises sponsored by the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) project of the World Climate Research Programme. He is also part of a multi-institutional collaboration to study the dissolution of biogenic calcium carbonate that is linked to observed acidification of the world’s oceans. Dickson is a member of the OceanSITES Data Management Team and the PICES Section on Carbon and Climate. He has served as editor or as an editorial board member of several journals, including most recently Journal of Geophysical Research,  Oceans.

Watch this video on YouTube