While a graduate student, he made the first comprehensive measurements of the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent.

[2] Knauss's PhD dissertation focused on the Equatorial Undercurrent in the Pacific Ocean, also known as the Cromwell Current.

[3] In 1962 he was appointed dean of the graduate school of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, where he served until 1987.

The National Sea Grant College Program and Act was signed into law on October 15, 1966.

[3] The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship, named in his honor, provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources, matching highly qualified graduate students with "hosts" in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C., area, for a one-year paid fellowship.