Robert Schlegel studies how the ocean is changing, from the mechanics of marine heatwaves to Arctic fjord ecosystems. His path ran through animal behaviour in Seattle, followed by marine science in Cape Town and oceanographic data science on the Mediterranean coast, before joining Mercator Ocean International in Toulouse to develop protocols for validating ocean forecasting products. Alongside a body of published research spanning heatwave detection, upwelling dynamics, and Arctic light environments, he builds and maintains the R packages other researchers use to do the same work: coastR, FjordLight, heatwaveR and heatwave3. The result is a career split evenly between asking the questions and building the tools to answer them.
Position
Oceanographer – Validation Protocols, Mercator Ocean International
Interests
Marine heatwaves · Climate change · Biodiversity · Machine learning · Data science
Education
2018 PhD in Biodiversity, University of the Western Cape
2014 MPhil in Marine Science, University of Cape Town
2008 BA in Animal Behaviour, University of Washington
