Dr W. John Gould

John Gould joined the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in 1967 to work with John Swallow FRS, the inventor of the neutrally buoyant float.  He used current measurements to observe the variability of the North Atlantic circulation.

He became director for the World Climate Research Programme’s World Ocean Circulation Experiment, WOCE (1994-2002) and its Climate Variability and Predictability Study CLIVAR (1998-2002).  He then moved to Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, USA as the first Director of the Argo profiling float project (https://argo.ucsd.edu/ ,2002-6) continuing this work after returning to the UK (after a 6 month Fellowship in Tasmania) in 2005.  He then went on to develop a European programme of public outreach for Argo. 

His present interests focus on aspects of the history of UK (and international) marine science.  He was the driving force for the book “Of Seas and Ships and Scientists” (2010) and he now maintains a web site (www.oceanswormley.org ) documenting the work of the UK National Institute of Oceanography/Institute of Oceanographic Sciences.  He has crecently ompared salinity measurements from the 1870s with present day values to show the acceleration of the global hydrological cycle.

He founded and leads Café Scientifique in Romsey (https://www.cafscientifiqueromsey.com/ )

He is an Emeritus Fellow at NOC.