When Susanne Neuer closed her eyes, she could see it: the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean. A smile broke out on her face as she reminisced about the times her family visited the coastline of Ibiza.
She has fallen in love with the ocean over and over, each time her family visited when she was young. She pictured a life on a boat fitted with all sorts of research equipment, salt in her face and the waves beneath her feet. No land for miles and miles.
And she had that life, for a little bit. Her research cruises were far from luxurious. Neuer said they were “spartan” in a way. But they were exactly what she wanted. “Just the sea in all its different states,” she said.
“The terrible waves that make me seasick or a smooth ocean and beautiful sunsets, and then the animals, the dolphins that come about and play in the wake of the ship,” Neuer said, her cadence speeding up with excitement. “It’s really diving into a different world.”
Neuer’s life took a sharp left turn to the desert in 2000 when she landed in Arizona after her husband got a job at Arizona State University. The desert landscape was a stark difference from the glittering blue waves dotted with bioluminescent plankton.
She eventually found her place in Arizona, becoming a world-renowned researcher studying the role of ocean life in the carbon cycle. In 2022, Neuer was named the founding director of Arizona State University’s School of Ocean Futures, a unique position to teach desert dwellers about the ocean.
Crossing oceans to study oceans
Neuer, 62, grew up in southern Germany, hundreds of miles away from the ocean in all directions. But her family vacationed in Ibiza, a Spanish island, and the ocean waves lapped at the edges of her mind.
She wanted to learn more about the ocean. So, she turned to the ponds and streams that surrounded her hometown, flipping over rocks and digging into the dirt and mud. When she was in her early teens, she worked one summer at a garden shop to buy her own microscope so she could uncover the mysteries in the water.
It changed her life. She knew it then, that she would study the ocean and the microorganisms that were only revealed to her through the microscope on those summer days.
Her university studies took her first to the University of Heidelberg in west Germany, then north to the University of Kiel on the Baltic Sea, a far cry from the warm embrace of the Mediterranean. It was one of the only places Neuer could study marine science, she said.
Then, she found out about the Fulbright Program, and she was accepted at the University of Washington to study oceanography. She planned to only stay in the U.S. for a year until she met her husband on a trip to California with other Fulbright students.
“I realized that, you know, that this was probably serious,” Neuer said. She and her husband, who was from Spain, decided to stay and finish out their studies in the U.S.
They had a daughter, finished their doctoral degrees and moved back to Germany for postdoctoral work. The family stayed in Germany for six years.
“There was, back then, no way we could stay both and get both permanent positions in Germany,” she said. “We said the first one who would get at tenure track offer would take the other one along.”
Her husband beat her to the punch. He landed a job at ASU in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, perfect for his career as a microbiologist focused on desert soil. Not so perfect for Neuer’s career in oceanography.
The lone oceanographer
When Neuer arrived in Arizona in 2000, she was lonely. The lone oceanographer in a sea of sand and hours away from the brilliant blue ocean — again.
She followed her husband’s lead and got a job at ASU. She taught oceanography through the geology department and spent more time with geologists than biologists. She tried teaching as many courses about marine life as possible and ended up pioneering degrees focused on environmental and marine sciences.
She fell in love with teaching, even if it meant being in the desert. She said that’s a benefit, not a detriment.
“You can’t really understand our planet and how our planet works without the oceans,” Neuer said. “(The ocean) is so intricately engrained in our climate and our weather. … Here in Arizona, you know, we receive water that enables life in the desert, and that water has come evaporated from the ocean.”
As the years dragged on, she was still the only oceanographer at the university. Sure, there were biologists and geologists and other “ologists,” but none focused solely on the ocean, like Neuer. She eventually found a home in the School of Life Sciences, where her programs lived for 20 years. She developed curricula for students and led the graduate program.
That’s how she met Jesse Senko.
Senko was at ASU as a doctoral candidate studying biology in 2011. Senko, from Connecticut, had planned on staying in Arizona for four years, just long enough to get his degree. His dream was to study marine life, specifically sea turtles. He wasn’t sure if he was going to make it if not for Neuer.
“She provided a safe space for me,” Senko said. “If it wasn’t for her, I definitely would’ve left the school, and I don’t even know if I would’ve gotten a Ph.D.”
More than 10 years later, Senko hasn’t left Arizona. He hasn’t even left ASU, all because of Neuer.
After years of being the lone oceanographer, Neuer founded a home for people like her. Like Senko. Those passionate about the ocean while loving the desert.
Neuer was named the director of ASU’s School of Ocean Futures in 2022, a “180-degree turn from being the lonely oceanographer to becoming the founding director of that school,” she said.
The school opened in 2023 and began offering degree programs in 2024. Students are able to study from across the world, from Hawaii to Bermuda. Senko teaches at the school and leads students on research trips to Baja California in northwest Mexico to study sea turtles.
“We are connected,” Neuer said, “considering the ocean as a home.”
News alerts in your inbox: Don’t miss the important news of the day. Sign up for azcentral newsletter alerts to be in the know.
Reporter Lauren De Young covers Tempe, Chandler, Maricopa County and transportation. Reach her at lauren.deyoung@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why an ASU professor studies the ocean in the desert