Amy Bower

Amy Bower is an American physical oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is known for her research on ocean circulation and for being one of the few blind oceanographers.

Career Bower received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Tufts University and her PhD in Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. She was the chair of the Physical Oceanography Department from 2018 to 2022.

Research Bower investigates large-scale ocean circulation systems, particularly thermohaline circulation (the so-called "ocean conveyor belt"), and how these currents transport heat and water around the globe. Bower and her team go on research cruises to deploy and retrieve hundreds of RAFOS floats—instruments that drift within different ocean layers and record movement patterns—to study deep currents in regions such as the Gulf of Mexico, Arctic, and Subpolar North Atlantic.

One of her major projects, Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP), investigates the mechanisms driving Atlantic Ocean circulation and its role in climate systems.

Bower is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Oceanography Society, the American Meteorological Society, the European Geophysical Union, Sigma Xi, and the Society for Women in Marine Science.

Disability and advocacy Bower is legally blind, having lost much of her sight since her mid-twenties to juvenile macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, and still has some light perception. Bower uses adaptive technology, such as a screen magnifier, screen readers, and sighted assistance, and uses a service dog for navigation. "If they don't ever meet a blind scientist, they're never going to think that they can be one," she told Tufts Now. Henry Bryant Bigelow Chair for Excellence in Oceanography, WHOI, 2014 Henry Stommel Research Award, the highest honor the American Meteorological Society (AMS) presents to oceanographers, 2025