About

William M. Balch (“Barney”) began his career in oceanography working for Dr. Charles S. Yentsch in 1972 at the University of Massachusetts Marine Laboratory, as a pimply-faced, 14-year old, doing microscope cell counting of phytoplankton cultures after school. That was half a century ago and he has been doing oceanography ever since. Barney went on and received his B.A. from Cornell University (1980) and Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Biological Oceanography (1985). He held post-doctoral fellowships at the Bedford Institute (1985; with Dr. W.G. Harrison) and at Scripps Institute Of Oceanography (1986; with Dr. R.W. Eppley). From 1988-1995 he served on the faculty at the Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (University of Miami), reaching the rank of Associate Professor (with tenure) before moving to Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine as a Senior Research Scientist in 1995, a position which he has held for 27+ years.