Klaus Wyrtki (February 7, 1925 – February 5, 2013) was an American physical oceanographer. Born in Tarnowitz, Upper Silesia, Poland, in 1925, from 1945-1948 Wyrtki attended the University of Marburg in Germany, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Kiel in 1950. He was a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography until 1964, when he became a member of the faculty of the Department of Oceanography at the University of Hawaii Manoa. From 1993 he was an emeritus professor.