1939 - 2025

PIONEERING OCEANOGRAPHER

Andrew Bakun, a Seattle native and visionary oceanographer whose curiosity, imagination, and intellectual courage reshaped our understanding of the ocean with climate change, died Dec. 4, 2025, in Bangkok, Thailand at age 86. Born and raised in the Seattle area into a large Polish extended family, Dr. Bakun attended Seattle Prep, earned his BA and MA at the University of Washington, and his PhD at Oregon State University.

Over six decades, Dr. Bakun transformed fisheries oceanography and marine ecosystem science with his iconic book Patterns in the Ocean, his creation of the Bakun Index which measures coastal upwelling, and his influential "Bakun Hypothesis" which addresses climate-driven changes in land-ocean temperature gradients. Dr. Bakun also had pivotal roles with the International Indian Ocean Expedition, the United Nations' FAO in Rome, and NOAA in Monterey, Ca. In 2002, he joined the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School as a professor, later professor emeritus.

In 2011, Dr. Bakun was awarded the Grand Albert I Medal by the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco, one of the highest honors in oceanography, recognizing his exceptional contributions to the field. Cited more than 18,000 times, Dr. Bakun's legacy endures in the generations of scientists he mentored and the global policies shaped by his work reflecting a deeper understanding of the oceans he helped bring to the world.

He is survived by two children, two grandchildren and two brothers.