The Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP) receives the Ocean Observing Team Award
For 20 years of internationally coordinated, high-quality, high-resolution repeat hydrographic measurements, documenting decadal changes in ocean circulation, heat, carbon, oxygen, and nutrients essential for understanding Earth's climate
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Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP)
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The Oceanography Society (TOS) has awarded the Ocean Observing Team Award to the Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP), recognizing the program’s groundbreaking and sustained contributions to ocean observing that have transformed scientific understanding of the global ocean and delivered profound societal benefits. Team members will be recognized during The Oceanography Society’s Awards Breakfast taking place on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.
GO-SHIP is the international community’s premier program for full-depth, high-accuracy, repeat observations of the global ocean, providing the climate-quality data required to detect and understand long-term changes in ocean heat, carbon, circulation, oxygen, and biogeochemistry. Coordinated by 19 nations across a global network of 55 hydrographic sections, GO-SHIP represents a breakthrough in the design, implementation, and long-term operation of an integrated global observing system. As noted by the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project, the “GO-SHIP Team has been a champion in providing opportunities for multinational execution of individual tasks as well as in assuring completion of decadal surveys across participating nations.”
GO-SHIP established the first globally coordinated and interoperable framework for repeat hydrography, integrating ships, sensors, calibration protocols, and open data systems into a unified observing strategy. These observations underpin many of the most consequential advances in modern ocean and climate science. Its data have revealed deep-ocean warming below 2,000 meters, quantified the ocean’s dominant role in absorbing excess heat and anthropogenic carbon, documented ocean deoxygenation and acidification, and improved understanding of large-scale circulation and sea-level rise.
“GO-SHIP is the foundation of sustained global ocean observations,” wrote Professor Sabrina Speich, Co-Chair of the Ocean Observations for Physics and Climate Panel (OOPC) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). “Its consistency and precision make it the benchmark against which all other ocean observations are calibrated and evaluated.”
In addition, GO-SHIP serves as the essential reference backbone for the global ocean observing system. Its foundational measurements are used to calibrate a wide array of autonomous platforms, ranging from Argo floats to satellite-based sensors. By providing this standard, GO-SHIP ensures that the broader observing network remains integrated, trustworthy, and characterized by high data quality over the long term.
These scientific advances have direct societal relevance. GO-SHIP data form a key empirical foundation for international climate assessments and policy processes, supporting evidence-based decision-making under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. “Without GO-SHIP, our understanding of Earth’s energy and carbon budget would be severely limited,” wrote Professor Nicolas Gruber of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. “We would lack the critical data needed to assess the ocean’s central role in moderating climate change.”
A defining strength of GO-SHIP is its inclusive, multidisciplinary team structure, integrating engineers, data scientists, technicians, ship operators, modelers, and observational scientists across all phases of observing-system design, implementation, and application. GO-SHIP cruises routinely host early-career researchers and students, providing hands-on experience in open-ocean measurement, data stewardship, and international collaboration. More information about GO-SHIP team members is available at: https://tos.org/ocean-observing-team-award.
“GO-SHIP’s achievements rest on the shoulders of individual principal investigators and teams who commit enormous effort—often voluntarily—to maintaining a global reference system for the benefit of the entire community,” Speich wrote, highlighting the program’s culture of service, mentorship, and open science.
GO-SHIP leadership has played a central role in establishing and sharing best practices for ocean observing, with openly accessible, FAIR data streams that are now widely adopted across the Global Ocean Observing System. “This initiative has transformed the way our community shares protocols, metadata, and inter-calibrations, ensuring that ocean data are interoperable and comparable across platforms and generations,” Speich noted.
Collectively, the GO-SHIP team has sustained nearly two decades of exceptional global collaboration and technical excellence. As Kathy Tedesco, NOAA/UCAR, stated in the nominating letter, GO-SHIP has “fundamentally transformed how the global community measures and stewards the ocean.”
By delivering climate-critical data with unmatched accuracy, fostering inclusive and interdisciplinary team science, and enabling interoperable global observing systems, GO-SHIP exemplifies the goals of the TOS Ocean Observing Team Award and sets a lasting standard for sustained ocean observation worldwide.
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About The Oceanography Society
Founded in 1988, The Oceanography Society’s mission is to build the capacity of its diverse global membership; catalyze interdisciplinary ocean research, technology, policy, and education; and promote equitable access to opportunities for all. More information about TOS Honors is available at https://tos.org/honors.
Elva Escobar Briones selected for The Oceanography Society Mentoring Award
For exceptional leadership in mentoring, tutoring, and teaching biological oceanography, fostering an inclusive and equitable mentoring environment in the lab and at sea, with a positive impact
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Elva Escobar Briones
view moreCredit: Arantza Lujambio
The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Elva Escobar Briones of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y LimnologÃa, as the recipient of the TOS Mentoring Award, recognizing her outstanding and sustained excellence in mentoring the next generation of ocean scientists, as well as her leadership in advancing inclusion, equity, and capacity building in oceanography. Her achievements will be celebrated during the TOS Honors Breakfast on February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.
The TOS Mentoring Award honors individuals whose mentorship has had a transformative impact on students, early career professionals, and colleagues, and whose leadership has strengthened the global ocean science community. Dr. Escobar Briones exemplifies these goals through decades of dedicated mentorship, visionary leadership, and a deep commitment to expanding access to ocean science.
Over nearly four decades, Dr. Escobar Briones has mentored an extraordinary number of students and early career scientists, including 76 thesis students across undergraduate, master’s, and PhD levels—more than 60% of whom are women—as well as more than 150 additional mentees through advisory and supervisory roles. Her former students now serve as researchers, educators, and leaders across Latin America and internationally.
“Her mentorship is proven, sustained, and transformative,” wrote Dr. Maria Fernanda Adame, a former mentee now an Associate Professor with Griffith University in Australia. “She provided the academic foundation, professional confidence, and research identity that allowed me to pursue a successful international career.”
Dr. Escobar Briones’ mentoring philosophy is inseparable from her leadership in promoting equity, inclusion, and access. She has been a pioneer in ensuring that oceanographic training—particularly deep-sea science—is available to students from historically underrepresented and resource-limited regions. Through more than 45 oceanographic expeditions, many as Chief Scientist, she has intentionally created opportunities for undergraduate students, early career researchers, and women to participate in ship-based research, achieving gender equity in research cruise participation.
Her impact extends beyond individuals to regional and international capacity building. Dr. Escobar Briones has played a central role in UN Ocean Decade Projects 136 and 137, and in IOCARIBE’s Capacity Development Working Group, helping to build durable networks for training, vessel access, and international collaboration across the Western Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean.
“As a colleague in the Latin American region, I have had the privilege of working with Dr. Escobar Briones in collaborative initiatives to expand deep-sea education and research capacity building where resources are often limited,” wrote Professor Jorge Cortés of the Universidad de Costa Rica. “Her leadership in bringing deep-sea science training to Spanish-speaking students has been particularly impactful…students reported that the experience changed their academic trajectories and opened global career doors.”
Dr. Escobar Briones’ mentoring excellence is further strengthened by her stature as a respected and influential scientist. She is internationally recognized for advancing understanding of deep-sea ecosystems and for linking science to conservation, management, and societal needs. Her leadership style—collaborative, inclusive, and deeply supportive—has created environments where students and colleagues thrive.
“To be an effective mentor…the recipient must be a respected scientist with proven ability for science leadership,” wrote Professor Eileen E. Hofmann of Old Dominion University. “Elva more than meets these requirements…The result is a long history of effective leadership and mentoring.”
In selecting Dr. Elva Escobar Briones for the TOS Mentoring Award, The Oceanography Society recognizes a mentor whose influence spans generations, whose leadership has helped shift the center of oceanographic capacity toward Latin America, and whose career stands as a model for how mentorship, equity, and scientific excellence together can shape the future of ocean science.
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About The Oceanography Society
Founded in 1988, the Oceanography Society’s mission is to build the capacity of its diverse global membership; catalyze interdisciplinary ocean research, technology, policy, and education; and promote equitable access to opportunities for all. To learn more about the TOS Honors program, visit https://tos.org/honors.
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