Title: Research Scientist and Oceanographer
Company: Zhejiang Ocean University
Location: North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States
Igor M. Belkin, PhD, Research Scientist and Oceanographer at Zhejiang Ocean University, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Scientists for dedication, achievements, and leadership in Oceanology and Higher Education.
Dr. Belkin is distinguished for his extensive career in oceanology and higher education, currently serving as a professor of oceanography at Zhejiang Ocean University, a public university in Zhoushan City, China, since 2019. Before securing his faculty position abroad, he was a marine research scientist at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. Dr. Belkin’s expertise in ocean fronts, particularly those of the Chinese ocean, atmospheric fronts, and mapping techniques, has made him widely recognized in his field.
In addition to lecturing students, Dr. Belkin serves as a mentor, guiding them on how to use computational systems. He also continues to conduct ongoing research, where he is involved in mapping oceanic fronts. Some of his students serve as co-authors on various studies, where they collectively pen and publish papers on their findings.
Dr. Belkin’s passion for oceanology was initially inspired by a computer scientist who concluded that only a few individuals have the capacity and willingness to study the same topic repeatedly. Admitting that he is that person, Dr. Belkin has been intensely studying oceanic fronts for over four decades and intends to continue doing so for the remainder of his life. Narrowing in on Chinese fronts, he published his first paper on the topic approximately 25 years ago, which attracted considerable attention from other scientists in the field and earned him numerous invitations to visit the country. After several years of working in China and Taiwan, Dr. Belkin ultimately joined Zhejiang Ocean University, where he was given the autonomy to lead his research as he wished. He accepted the position in 2019 and has remained a faculty member ever since.
Highly educated in support of his career, Dr. Belkin obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in oceanography from the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1987. He also completed coursework in mathematics at Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. In addition to his educational background, Dr. Belkin is a prominent member of the American Geophysical Union, where he remains at the forefront of his industry and engages with like-minded individuals.
As a respected scholar and researcher, Dr. Belkin has disseminated his findings through the authorship of numerous books and articles in various professional publications. He also served as the editor-in-chief of “Deep Sea Research Part I” for over five years. Some of his works have included “Observational Studies of Ocean Fronts: A Systematic Review of Chinese-Language Literature” in 2023, “Echoes of the 2013–2015 Marine Heat Wave in the Eastern Bering Sea and Consequent Biological Responses” in 2023, and “The China Coastal Front from Himawari-8 AHI SST Data—Part 2: South China Sea” in 2024. Notably, Dr. Belkin’s first book was published in Russian, and his second, “Chemical Oceanography of Frontal Zones,” was the first-ever monograph on chemical fronts in the ocean. He is now working to publish a comprehensive encyclopedia about fronts, which he hopes to release soon.
Throughout his career, Dr. Belkin spent five years at sea, working and sailing across all five oceans. He completed 16 expeditions in all. Dr. Belkin’s most significant achievement as an oceanographer has been the discovery of many fronts. His discovery of a substantial pattern of large-scale fronts in the North Pacific has been groundbreaking, as was his first significant discovery, made in 1981. Dr. Belkin is also honored that his research has become widely used by thousands of individuals, ranging from fishermen and naval officers to meteorologists and those studying climate and climate change in various fields worldwide.
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