In MEMORIAM: Dr. Sean Haney

Sean R Haney
Feb 14th, 1987 - Jan 1st, 2021

We are saddened to share that our friend, and colleague Sean Haney suddenly passed away on January 1st 2021. Sean was a beloved son, dear brother, first-prize officemate, compassionate colleague, clever scientist, fun adventure organizer, best friend. He was a brilliant scientist and a jovial spirit. We will all miss him very much.

Sean graduated from La Jolla High School in 2005 and went on to study math and physics at UC Santa Barbara. After finishing from UCSB he did an internship with Bruce Cornuelle at Scripps before heading out to University of Colorado, Boulder for graduate studies in physical oceanography. Sean completed his PhD in January 2015 under the supervision of Baylor Fox-Kemper (now at Brown University).

Sean joined Scripps in early 2015 as a postdoc in physical oceanography and has been a well-loved member of the SIO community since. At SIO, he worked with Bill Young and subsequently with Jen MacKinnon. Throughout his career, Sean made important contributions to our understanding of fundamental upper-ocean processes using theoretical, numerical, and observational analyses, examining surface waves, internal waves, Langmuir cells, sharp fronts, submesoscale instabilities, and nefarious nonlinear interactions among them.

At SIO, people remember him cranking up second-order asymptotics on his notepad, discussing the intricacies of Stokes drift with colleagues on the blackboard, gracefully navigating both rapid at-sea derivations and ship-board dance parties, and studying the swell forecast trying to determine the best time to run down to Blacks beach to catch some waves. He was an unusually thoughtful, insightful, and kind scientist, taking equal delight in detangling his own new understanding of the world around him and pride in the discoveries of his friends and colleagues.

Sean was a kind and fun person with many friends. He was an avid surfer. When he could not surf in Colorado, Sean mastered mountain climbing and mountain biking. His early surfing friends remember him in the beaches of La Jolla and Pacific beach, often entering local competitions and sometimes winning them. At SIO, he is remembered for his silver Mazda loaded with surfboards and snacks ready for camping at the beaches of Baja California, for his surfing commentary skills, and for his famous hot tub pizza parties when it got too dark to surf. He always generously shared all waves with his buddies, even when they carelessly or carefully dropped in on him.

Sean cherished being with his family and surrounded by his friends, whether at his family home in La Jolla, at TG, or in his front yard in the Barber Tract neighborhood of La Jolla. At family gatherings Sean enjoyed debating the most esoteric scientific concepts as well as current politics. He was the wittiest participant at any game night and had a remarkable habit of winning despite planning his moves out loud ahead of time.

Sean is survived by his parents, David and Nancy, his brother Seth, and his sister-in-law Erin. He will be dearly dearly missed by his family, the scientific community, and the many friends he made at Scripps and around the world. He will be forever celebrated and remembered as an ever-hopeful, kind, strong, generous, funny, athletic, brilliant, and loving human being.

In lieu of flowers, his family urges to consider a donation to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, the ALS Association, or to your favorite oceanography institution.