Rutgers Senior Studies the Ocean’s Impact on the World

Salvatore Fricano is helping plan for the first worldwide navigation of a new underwater ocean glider

Salvatore Fricano grew up spending summers on the Jersey Shore, where the vastness of the ocean captivated his imagination.

“I just saw the horizon with nothing on it and it looked like an adventure waiting to happen,” he says. “I was interested in exploring it more than anything.”

Arriving at Rutgers, Fricano delved into the study of the ocean and its impact on the world during the second week of his first year. He had just finished his third “Introduction to Oceanography” class when he asked his professor, the late Gary Taghon, whether hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico affect temperatures in Western Europe.

Impressed with the question, Taghon asked him to walk to the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences building, where Fricano met two technicians who were scheduled to set sail the next morning and recover one of Rutgers’ autonomous underwater ocean gliders, which collect observational data about the ocean and serve as a critical tool in the monitoring and forecasting of storms.

Full article at Rutgers Today