Jonathan Sharples holds a joint chair at the University of Liverpool and the UK Natural Environment Research Council's National Oceanography Centre and has taught courses in coastal and shelf oceanography at the universities of Southampton and Liverpool. He is an oceanographer whose research concentrates on the interface between shelf sea physics and biology. His work is primarily based upon observational studies at sea, combined with development of simple numerical models of coupled physics and biology. Professor Sharples has extensive seagoing experience off the NW European shelf and off New Zealand, having led several major interdisciplinary research cruises. His research has pioneered the use of fundamental measurements of turbulence in understanding limits to phytoplankton growth and controls on phytoplankton communities.