FSU-led consortium to research effects of BP oil spill receives $20 million

A consortium led by Florida State University is receiving $20 million over three years for research in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The lead researcher on the grant is Eric Chassignet, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) and director of FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS).

“It’s an interdisciplinary group consisting of geologists, biologists, chemists, physicists, and meteorologists,” Chassignet said when the grant was announced at the end of summer 2011. “They will be examining how oil is dispersed into the deep ocean and can make it back up to the beaches. Observations will be combined with earth system and food web models in order to better evaluate the consequences of crude oil and gas released in the Gulf of Mexico.”

According to the original proposal, others working with FSU as part of the consortium are Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Florida Institute of Oceanography, Georgia Institute of Technology, Naval Research Laboratory, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Science Applications International Corp., University of South Florida, University of West Florida, University of Miami, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The grant comes from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI), an independent group set up by BP to administer the oil company’s commitment to set aside $500 million over 10 years for research related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. To read about the consortium, called Deep-C, go to http://www.deep-c.org/index.html