Including the discovery of several important coastal upwelling regions, his previous research covered a broad range of subjects from small-scale convective mixing in polar regions, the circulation of inverse estuaries, suspended sediment dynamics and turbidity currents to canyon-flow interactions. He also published two textbooks on hydrodynamic modelling at Springer. Piers Chapman is a Professor in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University, where he currently works on the physics and chemistry of the Gulf of Mexico, concentrating on the low oxygen environment that forms each year in summer. He worked for many years in South Africa, has published widely on the Benguela upwelling system, and has been on over 50 research cruises totalling almost three years at sea.