William John Gould

I am a physical oceanographer and climate scientist. The focus of my research was measuring currents in the deep ocean. After a career that involved leading many seagoing voyages, from 1994 to 2005 I was succesively the international programme director for the World Climate Research Programme’s World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and then for its Climate Variability and Predictability Study (CLIVAR). Most recently I led the Argo programme that now forms the mainstay of the Global Ocean Observing System.

I have been author and co-author of a wide range of peer-reviewed papers, reports and book chapters and was a co-editor and contributing author of the seminal books, Ocean Circulation and Climate – Observing and modelling the global ocean (2001) - A 21st Century Perspective (2013).

I maintain an interest in documenting the rapid development of marine science in the 20th century and in promoting the public understanding of science. In 2020 I started a branch of Café Scientifique in Romsey, providing monthly talks for the general public on a wide range of topics.

BSc , Physics/Maths, Kings College London 1964.
MSc, Physical Oceanography, University College of N Wales, Marine Science Laboratory,1965
PhD, Physical Oceanography, University College of N Wales, Marine Science Laboratory,1971

1967-1995 Research Scientist UK National Institute of Oceanography/ Institute of Oceanographic Sciences
1995 -2002 International Director WOCE and CLIVAR
2002 - 2005 Argo Programme Director at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA
2005 - Emeritus Fellow, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK