Senior

University of Hawaii at Manoa

24 Years

Oceanography

"Okay, I’m sure the other guys will tell you all there is to hear about beer in a bag and meat sticks, so I’ll go right for the heart: Is this program what you’re looking for? This is a thought everyone has to grapple with before they make the hop over the pond.

First, understand the scope of the research itself. This is only a three-month program, and while it is very good in such a context, it is unlikely that it would satisfy an undergraduate thesis/research requirement. Also, the depth of the research you may actually conduct is rather limited; bureaucratic government policies will ensure you spend much more time analyzing and compiling data than actually dropping CTDs off the coast of Shanghai.

That said, while the extent of the research may not satisfy PhD seekers, it is quite all right for the college freshman or sophomore dabbing their toes into scientific research. The level of sophistication in the work also varies greatly depending your topic and mentor in Qingdao.

And do not discount the fact that you will be in China. Most of the students this year had never been to Asia, if they have ever gone abroad at all. You will likely only have an opportunity such as this, to spend a summer in Mainland China, once during your entire college career. That fact alone should make this program worthwhile for most people, especially those who have a keen interest in China or the language. And understand you will be in a developing country. Yes, oft times kids will pee on the street, restaurants run out of certain menu items, and people will, on occasion, try to rip you off 25¢US. But it keep a sense humor, take it in stride, try to understand where people are coming from, and you will learn more about life than you would in three years in an MIT lab. Compounded with the research experience, you will have an excellent opportunity to learn not only what it is to work with people of another culture and language, but to live it.

I’ve used the word opportunity here a lot now. But that’s exactly what this program represents. It’s up to you to take the initiative and get the most from it."

Double diffusion is the term used to define an observed phenomenon in fluid diffusion where two variables diffuse at different rates throughout a medium. In sea water, these two variables are typically heat and salinity. In the ocean, any singular water mass has typically been thoroughly mixed previously, and is vertically stable such that double diffusion is not observed. It is now becoming widely suggested that the presence of double diffusion may be used as a marker of the boundary of two separate masses. CTD data from September 2003 at the PN section was analyzed and revealed double diffusion at the known boundaries of the Changjiang Diluted Water and Kuroshio Current. The Turner Angle was used to calculate the degree of diffusion. The diffusive flux was also calculated.