Physical Oceanography Consultant (various): TReX project (MEOPAR, Canada), Municipal Water Quality (Metro Vancouver, Canada), BATS analyst (BIOS, Bermuda)
Education
2017–2024: PhD Oceanography, University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada, Supervisor: Dr. Rich Pawlowicz (switched from MSc. in September 2019)
2010–2013: BSc Oceanography, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K., Supervisor: Dr. Eleanor Frajka-Williams
Teaching
Sessional Lecturer
Methods in Oceanography (EOSC 473/573) - UBC, 2022
Teaching Assistant
Modern Observational Oceanography - BIOS, 2019
The Fluid Earth: Atmosphere and Ocean (EOSC 112) - UBC, 2018
Computer Methods in Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOSC 211) - UBC, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Students
Elli Cunningham - NSERC-USRA student (supervisor), 2022: Elli worked on testing, developing, and deploying "Swish floats".
Iris Gao - Co-op student (co-supervisor), 2019: Iris' research continued on from Forbes' (below), applying an empirical CDOM-salinity relationship to measurements at various wastewater outfalls around Vancouver to track immediate wastewater dispersal.
Forbes Choy - Co-op student (co-supervisor), 2018: Forbes researched the immediate dispersal of wastewater at an effluent outfall at First Narrows, Vancouver, developing an empirical CDOM-salinity relationship to identify wastewater without the need for water sampling.
Fieldwork
Research cruises:
39 x BATS/Hydrostation "S" cruises (11 as chief scientist) aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer; 1 x BATS cruise aboard the R/V Endeavor; 1 x Salish Sea cruise aboard the CCGS Vector, 1 x Gulf of St. Lawrence TReX deep cruise aboard the R/V Coriolis II.
Coastal fieldwork:
Highly experienced leading and participating in coastal fieldwork on small/medium sized coastal vessels and hovercrafts in shelf, estuary, reef, and fjord environments.
Selected Awards
International
PODS XIII Symposium Participant, 2024: Selected to present doctoral research at the 13th Physical Oceanography Dissertation Symposium, held in Lihue, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i, 20–24 October 2024. The symposium was jointly supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Office of Naval Research, and coordinated by the University of Hawai‘i.
National
Tertia MC Hughes Graduate Student Prize, 2025, Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS): "... for his excellent thesis at the University of British Columbia titled Measuring Subsurface Circulation in Deep Stratified Marginal Seas."
TReX Graduate Award, 2021–2022, MEOPAR: Funding to attract and support graduate students to conduct research activities on the TReX project that will contribute to a part of the student’s doctoral thesis research.
Institutional (UBC)
W.H. Mathews scholarship, 2020 & 2022, UBC: Department scholarship in memory of W. H. Mathews, a UBC graduate and professor who pioneered the study of subglacial eruptions and volcano-ice interactions.
George L. Pickard Scholarship in Oceanography, 2023, UBC: Endowed scholarship recognizing outstanding originality and promise of success in multidisciplinary areas of oceanography.
Four–year fellowship, 2019–2023, UBC: The Four Year Doctoral Fellowship program provides financial support and base-level funding for outstanding domestic and international doctoral students at UBC.
Selected Workshops
Fire Across the Land: Truth and Reconciliation Workshop, Vancouver, 2023: An experiential workshop to provide education and insights into the collective trauma that has impacted Native people throughout Canada's history.
International Summer School on Radio Oceanography, Victoria, Canada, 2019: a week-long class based on the use of high frequency (HF) radar for oceanography.
Sea-Bird Electronics CTD Bootcamp, Seattle, USA, 2015 : A week-long class at the Sea-Bird Electronics facillity covering CTDs and commonly used sensors, theory and operation, data processing, and maintenance and repair.
Selected Presentations
2023 CMOS Congress, St. Johns, Canada (session co-convener: Lagrangian perspectives on ocean transport and mixing)
"Swish floats- an inexpensive neutrally buoyant float to monitor dispersion in coastal seas"
Authors: Samuel W. Stevens, Rich Pawlowicz
2023 CMOS Congress, St. Johns, Canada
"Initial tracer dispersion measurements in the TReX deep tracer release experiment"
Authors: Samuel W. Stevens, Douglas W.R. Wallace, Lennart Gerke, William A. Nesbitt, Toste Tanhua, Rich Pawlowicz
2020 AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, USA
"Using seasonality to trace water masses in a coastal ocean"
Authors: S.W. Stevens, R. Pawlowicz
2020 AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, USA
"Meridional Heat and Salinity Budgets of the Sargasso Sea Inferred from Two Decades of Ocean Time-series and Transect Observations"
Authors: R.J. Johnson, N.R. Bates, M.W. Lomas, S.W. Stevens, P. Lethaby, Z. Anderson, F. Pacheco, A. Knap
2017 ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, USA
"Investigating the Interannual and Mesoscale Erosion of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water Within the Sargasso Sea"
Authors: S.W. Stevens, R.J. Johnson, N.R. Bates
2016 AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans, USA
"Physical and Biogeochemical Factors Affecting Deep Oxygen Minimum Zone Variability at BATS"
Authors: S.W. Stevens, R.J. Johnson, N.R. Bates, R.J. Parsons