Delaney, a professor of , is director of the , a cabled underwater research facility being constructed off Oregon and Washington that’s one component of the .

“John’s powerful outreach and innovative activities developed public support for the vision of the powerful and technologically advanced ocean observing system now under construction,” the AGU citation says. “His passionate message about the oceans enthralls audiences, and he is a highly sought after speaker giving more than 50 invited talks a year. . .He is as excited to share his excitement with school children as with TED audiences and national committees.”

Among his outreach activities, Delaney worked with colleagues to develop the first formal programs bringing middle and high school teachers to sea, now common opportunities, according to the citation. He worked with NOVA in 1998 to film the successful recovery of black smokers from ocean ridges. In 2005 Delaney鈥檚 group was the first to stream high-definition video live from sea floor. More than a million viewers across the globe watched on the web.

The letters nominating him for the award talk of the historical and cultural aspects he employs to explain science, including his use of poetry. One letter writer called him “. . .an extraordinary scientist and communicator, in essence, an environmental philosopher.”

Delaney joined the 91探花in 1977 and currently holds the holds the Jerome M. Paros Endowed Chair in Sensor Networks. Leader of more than 50 ocean expeditions, his research focuses on the deep-sea volcanic activity of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

Six more of these primary nodes — each about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle — are being installed this summer. Smaller secondary nodes will be installed in 2013 and will transfer power and communications from the primary nodes to experimental sites.

The project, designed to deliver real-time ocean observations for 25 years, is part of the National Science Foundation鈥檚 . The construction and early operations of the cabled observatory, known as the component, is led by the 91探花.

The nodes are, in many ways, the brains of the system, designed to distribute power and two-way communications to a network of ocean observing sensors, instruments and moorings that are scheduled to begin operating in late 2013. When fully completed in 2014, the regional cabled observatory will provide real-time information on ocean phenomena such as active underwater volcanoes, gas hydrate deposits, major ocean currents and rich environments of marine plants and animals. Anyone with a connection to the Internet will be able to see what’s happening at the study sites.

Connecting the nodes to the cable segments involves a delicate ballet of cable retrieval from the seafloor, testing, cutting, on-deck splicing and computerized positioning calculations. Once a node is successfully spliced into the cable segments and thoroughly tested, it is deployed from the ship to a precise location on the seafloor.

The first installed node now rests in its intended home for the next 25 years: on the seafloor at a study site named Hydrate Ridge, some 75 miles southwest of Pacific City, Ore. Depending on good weather and successful testing results, the last node should be installed on Aug. 16.

鈥淭he Primary Node installation is a unique operation, a precision act requiring constant and simultaneous monitoring of the cable tension and node positioning,鈥� said Cecile Durand, Ocean Observatories Initiative marine maintenance manager at the UW. 鈥淥ur 聽team, including contractor L-3 MariPro, has worked for several months to evaluate a number of installation scenarios and we are ready for the challenges.鈥�

Durand is part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative team aboard the installation vessel Dependable, owned by TE SubCom. Follow installation progress via her

Two primary nodes will be installed on cables that reach Hydrate Ridge, at the base of the Oregon continental margin, and two more will monitor another main study site, Axial Seamount, about 300 miles west on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Two nodes will be at the site for coastal studies overseen by Oregon State University. Another primary node, in the middle of the Juan de Fuca plate, will act as a placeholder with minimal internal electronics available for future network expansion.

Journey 300 miles off the Washington-Oregon coast and dive nearly a mile deep into the ocean as scientists and 20 students use underwater robots to explore, map and sample methane ice deposits, an underwater volcano and seafloor hot springs spewing water up to 570 degrees F.

Just click yourself aboard, thanks to the Internet. On the Enlighten ’10 expedition , images are being updated each day of the four-week expedition and short documentary-style videos will be posted.

While at the site, don’t miss seeing preparations for the ship’s departure to Flight of the Bumblebee, the first from the chief scientist and, under the “Arts” heading, the poetry and . Yes, along with all the science topics, there is a section for the arts, celebrating such events as the Bosun’s Poetry Night.

The expedition, under way through Aug. 23 on the UW’s vessel Thomas G. Thompson, is laying the groundwork for a $126 million seafloor observatory comprised of science nodes, moorings and instruments all connected to land with a cable for power and real-time, high-speed, two-way communications.

The 91探花is leading development of this cabled project called the Regional Scale Nodes. It’s part of the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative and represents a major investment by the foundation in new approaches to science in the ocean basins. The Ocean Observatories Initiative is managed by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, D.C., and other partners include Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Oregon State University and the University of California, San Diego.

“In time, hundreds of sensors on the seafloor and on fully instrumented water-column moorings will be deployed at sea and controlled by shore-based personnel, thanks to the electrical power and high-bandwidth telecommunications capabilities provided by this cabled network,” said Deborah Kelley, 91探花professor of oceanography and co-chief scientist on the cruise. The main cable carrying data and power will come ashore in Pacific City, Ore., and connect to high-speed Internet in Portland.

Work led by Oregon State University scientists also is being conducted during the Thompson expedition to define several coastal components of the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Other participants on the current expedition come from Arizona State University, and groups from Woods Hole are providing support for the remotely operated vehicle Jason and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry, both cutting-edge platforms for conducting high-resolution mapping of the seafloor, according to Kelley.

At times, live video will be streamed from the seafloor showing exotic life forms or scientists at work on the ship. When visiting the website check the “Webcast: Streaming Live from the Sea” link to see if scientists are using the high-definition underwater video camera for mapping and surveying. The webcast allows you to watch over their shoulders and occasionally hear commentary.

“By 2014, the 800-kilometer network of fiber-optic and electrical cables and instruments will allow scientists, educators, students and the public to observe and interact with the oceans via the Internet in entirely new ways, 24/7, for decades,” said John Delaney, 91探花professor of oceanography and chief scientist on the cruise. “The Regional Scale Nodes is one of the first such systems — by 2020 there are likely to be many such installations across the global ocean,” says Delaney, who has recently traveled to more than 10 countries to discuss the project.