Catching up with Knauss Fellow Shari Rohret
In June, before 2026 Knauss Fellow Shari Rohret could settle into her new job responsibilities at NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration in Silver Spring, MD, she was given the chance to spend 25 days in the Pacific, mapping islands aboard the Okeanos Explorer. As an ocean exploration policy and operations fellow, Shari chronicled the expedition, called EX2604, from Honolulu to the Cook Islands and her experiences at sea, sharing in a blog what life at sea is like — from science operations and shipboard routines, to how they keep themselves entertained in the middle of the ocean.
Now that she’s back at NOAA headquarters, Shari says:
“Life after EX2604 has definitely been a change of pace! I’m back in Silver Spring, Maryland and have been settling into my Knauss Fellowship by getting to know my colleagues, attending meetings, and setting goals for the year ahead. Beyond writing up detailed documentation on how to operate several of the instruments we used on the ship, I’m serving as executive secretary to the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Exploration and Characterization (IWG-OEC), joining the planning committee for next year’s forum in Woods Hole for the NOPP-NOMEC (National Oceanographic Partnership Program and National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization Council), which will focus on accelerating public-private partnerships, and working on a best practices repository for exploration and characterization data. I’m looking forward to an exciting and productive year ahead!”