Theodore J. Smayda (1931 – April 5, 2017) was an American oceanographer.
He was born in
Peckville, Pennsylvania
Peckville is a village in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, roughly northwest of Scranton. The governing borough of Peckville is Blakely.
Peckville was named for Samuel Peck, who moved to northeastern Pennsylvania from Massachu ...
. He was employed at the
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...
in 1959. He later won a
Fulbright Scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
to travel to Norway and study at the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...
, where he took the
dr.philos.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
degree. His defense of his doctoral thesis took place in the
Norwegian language
Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...
. The thesis regarded
phytoplankton
Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater Aquatic ecosystem, ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek language, Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), mea ...
Trygve Braarud
Trygve Braarud (15 September 1903 – 9 July 1985) was a Norwegian botanist. He specialized in marine biology, and was affiliated with the University of Oslo for most of his career.
Career
He was born in Verdal Municipality, and had ten older si ...
and
Odd Henrik Sælen
Odd Henrik Sælen (8 June 1920 – 23 January 2008) was a Norwegian oceanographer.
He was born in Bergen. He took the dr.philos. degree in 1963, became a professor of physical oceanography at the University of Oslo in 1965 and a fellow of the Nor ...
. Following his stay in Norway, Smayda returned to the University of Rhode Island where he served as a professor of oceanography throughout his career.
He was a fellow of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...
from 1992. ''
Limnology & Oceanography
Limnology ( ; ) is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.
It includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics of fresh and saline, natural and man-made bodies of water. This includes the study of lakes, re ...
'' found his article "Harmful algal blooms: Their ecophysiology and general relevance to phytoplankton blooms in the sea" to be one of the top 60 most cited between 1956 and 2016.
He was married and resided in
Jamestown, Rhode Island
Jamestown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 5,559 at the 2020 census. Jamestown is situated almost entirely on Conanicut Island, the second largest island in Narragansett Bay. It also includes the uni ...