Xiaoqian "Michael" Zhang, a Ph.D. student in Oceanography in the College of Geosciences, won the "Outstanding Student Presentation" award at the 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Orlando, Florida, March 2-7.

Zhang’s presentation titled "Sea breeze driven ocean response on a stratified continental shelf at the critical latitude" described the spatial structure and temporal evolution of sea breeze and the associated coastal ocean response to sea breeze on the Texas-Louisiana Shelf. His research showed that the ocean response depends significantly on a number of factors including the characteristics of sea breeze, river associated stratification, latitude, and coastal and bathymetric curvature. Zhang is working under graduate advisor Dr. Steve DiMarco, associate professor of Oceanography.  

The Ocean Sciences Meeting is co-sponsored by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, the American Geophysical Union, The Oceanography Society, and the Estuarine Research Federation. The theme of the 2008 meeting was “From the Watershed to the Global Ocean.”