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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Two Oregon State University faculty members have received prestigious early career awards from national entities. 

Both are in OSU's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Emily Shroyer received a 2015 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research. An expert in the physics of oceans and atmospheres, Shroyer received the award for her proposal to study the small-scale processes that control the movement and mixing of heat and fresh water within the ocean. Her work investigates "internal waves" that propagate beneath the ocean's surface, redistributing energy and mass.

"Waves beneath the ocean's surface can break and mix water very effectively. They can transport mass, plankton, and larvae from one region to another. And, the large fluctuations in temperature that accompany these waves alter sound propagation through the local environment," Shroyer said.

Angelicque "Angel" White has been named a 2015 recipient of the Ocean Sciences Early Career Award, which she will receive this December at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. White, an ocean ecologist and biogeochemist, was cited for her contribution to the understanding of the relationship between microbial communities and surrounding seawater.

"Understanding the biological and physical relationships in the ocean is a daunting challenge," White said. "We dunk bottles in the ocean, we send little drones into the seas, we tether moorings and launch drifters, we scan the surface with satellites, yet in the end, we see so very little of this immense, moving, alive and fluid ocean."