Cliff Law

Cliff is the Co-Director of the Research Centre for Oceanography, leader of NIWA's Ocean-Climate Interaction Programme and a Professor in the Department of Marine Chemistry, University of Otago. He is also a member of the Coastal People: Southern Skies collaboration that connects communities with world-leading, cross-discipline research to rebuild coastal ecosystems.

His research focuses on the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere; how biogeochemical cycling in the surface ocean influences atmospheric composition, and feedbacks between ocean biogeochemistry and climate. Specific research includes marine production and exchange of trace gases, controls of phytoplankton productivity and biodiversity and the impact of ocean acidification and climate variability on the structure and functioning of pelagic ecosystems.

He was a formerly Chair and a Steering Committee member of International SOLAS and also the NZ delegate on the IMO Working Group on Ocean Fertilization for the London Convention. Awards include the 2011 Prime Ministers Science Team Award, the Hutchinson Medal by the Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2013, the University of Otago Science Division Research Group of the Year in 2015 and the ASLO John H. Martin Award in 2018.