Erik J. Bock
The oceanographic and remote sensing communities recently lost a valued colleague.
Dr. Erik John Bock, of the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Erik died unexpectedly
near his home in Obrigheim, Germany on June 25, 2001 of injuries suffered in a bicycle
accident. He was 39 years old.
Erik was born in Buffalo, New York on November 2, 1961 and grew up in Cheektowaga
and Boston New York. An avid Boy Scout and early achiever, he attained the rank of
Eagle Scout and was Salutatorian of his Orchard Park High School Class of 1980.
Erik went on to study chemistry at the Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy,
New York, earning a B.S. in chemistry (magna cum laude) in 1984, a M.S. in Chemistry
in 1986, and then his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1987. Following three years as Research
Assistant Professor at Renssalaer, Erik joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
as Assistant Scientist in 1990, becoming an Associate Scientist in 1994. In 1998,
he moved to the University of Heidelberg as Guest Scientist to work with B. Jähne
in the new Aeolotron wind-wave facility.
Erik's research focused on the interfacial properties of the ocean surface, and in
particular, how the chemistry of the air-sea interface affects the dynamics of short
waves, near-surface flows and interfacial fluxes of heat, mass and momentum. During
his short career, he contributed to over 30 scientific publications in this area.
His doctoral research, carried out under the tutelage of well-known colloid and
surface chemist, Sydney Ross, concerned the propagating characteristics of surface
waves in the presence of adsorbed films. That work was eventually published as a
series of seminal papers on capillary ripples and his theoretical treatment of ripple
propagation and a corrected dispersion relation for surface waves in the presence
of a surface dilational modulus (with J. Adin Mann, Jr.) still stand as the definitive
word on the subject. Erik considered himself first and foremost a surface chemist,
although the timely relevance of his work to ocean wave dynamics and to remote
sensing questions pushed him strongly in the direction of ocean physics. He became
a leading expert in designing and deploying instruments to measure small-scale ocean
waves, which play an important role in many air-sea exchange processes. Increasing
interest in the high frequency tail of the ocean wave spectrum and the role of
small-scale waves in the scattering of microwave radar led him to develop novel
optical slope gauges that provided ripple frequency spectra and later, full
three-dimensional frequency-wavenumber spectra of ripples. These instruments played
a central role in numerous field campaigns to study radar imaging of the sea surface
and the role of surface roughness in boundary layer processes. In collaboration with
colleagues at Woods Hole, Heidelberg, and the University of Rhode Island, Erik
explored the relationship between the mean square slope of small-scale waves and
air-sea gas transfer velocity, work that subsequently led to estimation of global
gas transfer velocity fields using satellite altimeters. In the laboratory, he
continued his interest in interfacial phenomena, including the influence of surface
films on near-surface vortical flows, the subject of a contribution with S. McKenna
in this volume.
Erik was mentor and teacher to several postdoctoral investigators, graduate students
and undergraduates, who benefited from his clear explanations of physical phenomena
and his competent engineering advice.
Erik made a huge contribution to the field of ocean physics by providing detailed
spatio-temporal spectra of small-scale ocean waves. His colleagues and the
community-at-large will sorely miss his keen insight and jovial presence.
Nelson Frew
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