Convocation Speaker Dr. Christopher Gobler

Dr. Christopher Gobler is a Distinguished Professor within the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University.  He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stony Brook University in the 1990s and began his academic career at Long Island University in 1999. In 2005, he joined Stony Brook University as the Director of Academic Programs for SoMAS on the Stony Brook – Southampton campus.  In 2014, he was appointed as the Associate Dean of Research at SoMAS and in 2015, he was named co-Director for the Center for Clean Water Technology (CCWT).

The major research focus within his group is investigating how anthropogenic activities such as climate change, eutrophication, and the over-harvesting of fisheries alters the natural biogeochemical and/or ecological functioning of coastal ecosystems. Within this realm, major research efforts include the study of harmful algal blooms (HABs) caused by multiple classes of phytoplankton in diverse ecosystems as well as the effects of coastal ocean acidification on marine life. He has been editor-in-chief of the international, peer-reviewed scientific journal, Harmful Algae, since 2018.

Dr. Gobler was born on, and has spent his entire life on, Long Island.  He grew up enjoying swimming on Long Island’s ocean beaches, fishing on the East End, and sailing on the Long Island Sound.  His pursuit of his graduate studies in marine science was motivated by the progressive declines in Long Island’s shellfisheries during the 1980s. During the past twenty years, his research has identified the key role excessive nitrogen loading has played in the degradation of Long Island’s fisheries and water quality.  With the establishment of the CCWT, Dr. Gobler sees the promise of discovering the solutions to Long Island’s nitrogen problems as well as the creation of an industry that can create jobs for Long Islanders.

Congratulations Class of 2025! You made it.  The end of a very long journey.  Think about all of the work you just completed to earn your new degree from Stony Brook University.  If you are an undergrad, you amassed at least 120 credits, took dozens of classes, spent many a late-night studying, wrote endless term papers, dragged yourself to class even when you were sick and in awful weather.  You succeeded where many do not. 

And if you are a grad student, you took those classes, you wrote a proposal for your thesis and dissertation.  Engaged in your research, and almost certainly learned how short-sighted you were when you wrote that proposal, and how native you were to think you’d finish your degree in a timely fashion.  You wrote drafts of your thesis chapters and then had them shredded by your advisor, and then revised them.  And if you’re one of my students, you repeated that cycle at least a dozen times for each chapter. Then you had your thesis committee explain to you all the things you did wrong. 

But, hey, you made it!  You have shown grit, tenacity, determination, and let’s be honest, sometimes you just hung on for dear life.  There’s a ubiquitous catch phrase these days “Life’s a journey”.  Well, after all that, I imagine for most of you getting your degree felt more like a Battle Royale wrestling match with obstacles and opponents constantly trying to toss you over the top rope.  But guess what?  You made it. And that is incredible. I salute each and every one of you.  Give yourself a hand!

And you’d made it just in time.  Our planet needs you to get to work, ASAP.  2024 was the warmest year ever and the year we crossed the 1.5℃ warming threshold that the smartest scientist on the planet warned us to avoid at all costs due to the dire environmental consequences that come would come with that warming.  And because of our reliance on fossil fuels, atmospheric CO2 levels pierced the 430ppm level just this month, a 50% increase over levels in the 20^th century.  There are now just a few hundred Northern Right Whale and a few hundred Florida manatees left in our oceans and they are now at risk of joining the 150,000 species that have gone extinct in the past 500 years.  It has been predicted that all world fisheries could collapse within the next three decades.  Plastics and seaweeds are filling and chocking off our seas.  Toxic algal blooms are poisoning humans, sea life, and even our pets.  And as we race to head-off these dire challenges, some federal decision makers are striving to eliminate NOAA, our National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration that is responsible for ‘saving our seas and atmosphere’ and they want to the shrink the Environmental Protection Agency by 60%.  Some have referred to the current environment as ‘the end of science’.  I mean, if your academic career at Stony Brook felt like a Battle Royale, it may now feel like you are being thrown into a Steel Cage with a 500-lb gorilla! 

Its all quite daunting, but here we are.  What will you do? 

I’d like to share an excerpt of a poem by Drew Dellinger called Hieroglyphic Stairway:

it's 3:23 in the morning and I'm awake because my great great grandchildren won't let me sleep.

my great great grandchildren ask me in dreams:
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?
surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?
as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
what did you do, once you knew?

what did you do, once you knew?

The point here is, you felt a call to help this planet when you signed up for your degree and this planet needs you now more than ever.  This planet and all 8 billion inhabitants need you.  Your great great grandchildren need you.  Your life and life goals and our planet are so much bigger than the day-to-day whims of politics.  And recognize this country comprises less than 3% of the World’s population and, in turn, a very small fraction of the global opportunities on this planet.  Do not let current circumstances make you shrink from your life mission. But about that, let’s consider what is needed to achieve fulfill that life mission.

I am a double SoMAS alumnus, having obtain my MS and PhD from this fine institution in the 1990s.  In fact, if you stroll down to Challenger Hall and go to room 113, you will find a sticker of Calvin and Hobbes I placed on the door in 1992.  At the same time, I placed the sticker I taped an ad for bourbon from Rolling Stone magazine on the bookshelf next to my desk, not because I drank bourbon but because of the message in the ad.  It had a cool looking saxophone player and the phrase: “Do what you love and the rest comes.”  It felt so right to my 22-year-old self, do what you love and the rest comes.  Well, 30 some odd years later, I can tell you: boy, was I native.  The phrase that developed after that ad was ‘follow your passion’.  OK, yes, we should all follow our passion especially if it’s to save the planet, but I am here to tell you, as you set out on your life’s journey, you will need more than just passion.

Let me introduce the Japanese word ‘ikigai’ which is more on point here.   Ikigai translates as “reason for being that brings joy and value to your life.”  How can you create Ikigai?  That reason for being that will bring joy and value to your life?  To the best of my knowledge, there are six elements to achieving ‘ikigai’, let me highlight them for you:

1. The first two are easy, because you are already on track. First, yes, you must follow your passion.  Quoting one of my favorite Grateful Dead lyrics: Without love in the dream, it will never come true. You must absolutely do what you love – but the rest will not come on its own.
2. Element number 2: Be what the world needs or like Arnold Schwartzenegger says, be useful. In happy news, if you seek to save the planet, you are already on track.
3. Now, the final four elements are where you’ll need to focus. Number 3: You must put in the effort. It was Malcom Gladwell who developed the idea of 10,000 hours: it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert.  Dreams do not come true because you dream them.  It’s hard work that makes things happen.  It’s hard work that creates opportunities and change.
4. Number 4: Do what you are good at. Pablo Picasso once said “The meaning of life is to find your gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away.”  We all have strengths.  We all have weaknesses.  No one is super at everything.  For example, I might be good at conducting scientific research, but I am a terrible pubic speaker.  Seriously, you need to find your strengths, and maybe build those strengths, and exploit those strengths for the world.  You will not single handedly discover the solution to plastic pollution or our carbon problem or mass extinctions, but you don’t have to.  Progress towards these goals are based on a community of accomplishments that you will contribute toward using the specific strengths that you have identified and can contribute.
5. Number 5: Here’s one mom and dad will love: Do what you can be paid for. Another great lyric: they call it a living, we all gotta eat. You will not be able to help others if you cannot care for yourself.  You need not be filthy rich, but you must find ways to be compensated to a point of comfort.
6. Finally, embrace and absolutely welcome failure. I tell all of my graduate students embarking on new research project: nothing good works on the first attempt. Failure is a key to success. If you are making an effort, you will fail and you will fail often.  Life is a series of failures.  If you can recognize the lessons to be learned in each failure, they will be opportunities for growth and steady improvement.

OK, I should wrap up.  But before I do, let me say a quick word about this fine institution from which you are graduating, Stony Brook University, the number one ranked public university in NYS for five-years running.  Beyond its academic reputation, Stony Brook University has left an indelible mark on you all.  Having completed your academic journey, you now see the world differently then you did before you arrived.  And you have made friends for life; I still gather with my friends from my grad school days and in fact, beyond being friends, I can proudly say I continue to actively working with several of them to help make the world a better place.

And beyond the University, you are now SoMAS alumni. The SoMAS mission is to advance knowledge and solve critical global and regional problems through the study of human and natural systems.

SoMAS is your lifelong ally; we will always be here to provide guidance; to provide support; to provide those critically important letters of recommendation.  But remember, this is a two-way street. SoMAS will need your help.  SoMAS will not achieve solve critical global and regional problems alone, but we can and will solve those problems with the help of the class of 2025.

Congratulations class of 2025!

From the SBU 65th Commencement Ceremony

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