• About

The Group

The Oceanography Malta (OM) Research Group within the Department of Geosciences of the Faculty of Science aims to promote the field of oceanography through its applied research and teaching activities, making it the quintessential oceanography research group in the Maltese Islands.

Expertise

The OM group integrates multifarious expertise through the background of its academic staff, such that it can address a diverse array of sub-disciplines linked with the field of oceanography. These sub-disciplines include physical oceanography, biological and chemical oceanography, geological oceanography,  marine meteorology, remote sensing, and ocean informatics.

Collaboration

The OM group’s collaborative portfolio is extensive, given that the research group is currently representing the University of Malta within a substantial number of externally-funded projects within the ambit of numerous EU and national funding programmes, including the Interreg MED, Interreg Italia-Malta 2014-2020, JPI Oceans, Erasmus+ and MCST Space Fund ones, even coordinating a number of the same projects.

Research

Our Group undertakes oceanographic research, in a holistic perspective, including operational observations and forecasts, specialised data management analysis and participation in international cooperative ventures. The overarching research themes cover coastal meteorology, hydrography and physical oceanography with a main emphasis on the experimental study of the hydrodynamics of the sea in the vicinity of the Maltese Islands. Our main endeavour is to promote activities in operational oceanography by the installation and maintenance of permanent sea monitoring systems, and the provision of meteo/marine forecasts.

International Portofolio

We act as a national oceanographic data centre and promote the IOC/IODE (IOC Committee on the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange) products and oceanographic data management activities in Malta (IODE National Report). We provide support to local entities involved in marine research and monitoring, to collect and maintain oceanographic data according to international standards.

Our Group plays the role of keeping track of ocean observations made in the vicinity of the Maltese Islands. Data collected by individual scientists, local agencies and governmental departments is primarily kept under the respective sources, and under different, often incompatible formats. Our aim is to identify these data holdings and to bring the data under one database with standardised formats.

3

Academic Staff

3

Research Support Officers

2

Technical Officers

The Team

  • Prof. Alan Deidun
  • Dr Joel Azzopardi
  • Dr Anthony Galea
  • Dr Adam Gauci
  • Ms Audrey Zammit
  • Mr Edward Sultana
  • Mr Alessio Marrone
  • Mr Johann Galdies
  • Mr Rami Kalfouni