David Driver has 36 years of experience working in the physical oceanography realm, 28 of which were spent working in the offshore oil and gas industry. Before retirement, his primary responsibility was the development of environmental (metocean) criteria for the design, installation, and operation of offshore production facilities (spars, semis, TLP, etc). He collected and analyzed meteorological and oceanographic data from a variety of sources, including measured data from company/industry monitoring programs, government and academia monitoring programs, and proprietary numerical hindcast data. He served as BP’s Principal Metocean Engineer and Technical Authority for the Gulf of Mexico, Trinidad, and Brazil.

Driver has been active on the GCOOS Board of Directors since 2012, participating on the Observing Systems Committee and the Glider Task Team and serving as Board Chairman. BP and the industry routinely send real-time GoM current data to NOAA-NDBC and are actively working on the development of operational forecast tools aimed at better prediction of the Loop Current (LC) and it associated Loop Current Eddies (LCE). He has worked closely with Scripps Institute of Oceanography with Spray glider deployments and offshore HF radar installations, data from which are/will be shared. His M.S. – Physical Oceanography, is from Old Dominion University.

Dr. Emily Hall joined the staff at Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida, in the Chemical Ecology Program in 2005 where she participated in research and monitoring of nutrient patterns in relation to harmful algal blooms in the west-central coast of Florida and investigated sources of nutrients in aquatic systems.

Dr. Hall now currently manages the Chemical and Physical Ecology Program and the Ocean Acidification Program, two major research programs at Mote Marine Laboratory. As part of the Ocean Acidification Program, Dr. Hall developed ocean acidification and climate change experimental systems (in the Florida Keys — CAOS; in Sarasota — OASys) to study the effects of global and local variables on coral reef ecosystems as well as on other marine organisms. Dr. Hall has been instrumental in engaging regional, national and international stakeholders to identify and set priorities for ocean acidification research and monitoring gaps in both the Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Regions. Understanding the effects of acidification on coastal, marine and estuarine ecosystems and organisms is a top priority of numerous federal, state, and local agencies and institutions in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Hall is also focusing her research on unique coastal and marine habitats that may be able to withstand or alleviate the effects of global climate change on coastal and marine organisms.

Additionally, within the Chemical and Physical Ecology Program at Mote, Dr. Hall addresses both research and applied science questions on the impacts and interactions of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and silica) and physical parameters (salinity, light) in riverine, estuarine and coastal environments, and associated with harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Ruth Perry is a Marine Scientist and Regulatory Policy specialist responsible for offshore marine environmental policy for Shell Exploration and Production Americas teams. In this capacity, Perry integrates marine science and ocean technology into regulatory policy advocacy and decision-making in the areas of marine sound, marine spatial planning, ocean observing, and marine mammal and life science, primarily in the Gulf of Mexico. Perry is also responsible for helping Shell to develop public-private science collaborations, such as real-time monitoring programs, to improve industry’s knowledge of the offshore marine environment. Ruth also works with the oil and gas industry trade associations’ to develop and implement joint industry programs for offshore environmental monitoring and to help increase understanding of the effect of sound on marine life generated by oil and gas exploration and production activities. Her recent projects with Shell include working with NOAA and University of Southern Mississippi to deploy autonomous underwater vehicles to better understand oceanographic environment relative to storm and hurricane intensity and establishing a long term deep sea (~3000m) time series station to monitor ocean water column at Shell’s Stones project.

Previously, Perry was a research scientist with the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System and Geochemical and Environmental Research Group at Texas A&M University, where she was worked on the implementation of a regional glider network, developing ocean science outreach for coastal communities, and incorporating geospatial techniques with remote sensing and ocean observing to study Gulf environmental hazards, such as hypoxia, and the effect of physical ocean processes on marine mammal distributions. Ruth has over 10 years of ocean technology research and system implementation, field experience and ocean policy analysis , including research cruises to monitor coastal hypoxia and the offshore physical environment, deploying and operating ocean observing systems and marine mammal observing in the Gulf of Mexico, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands.

Perry, who earned a doctorate in Oceanography from Texas A&M University in 2013, joined Shell in 2014 and is based in Houston.

Dr. Rafael Ramos has more than 35 years of experience working in many aspects of ocean engineering, oceanography, and atmospheric sciences for government entities, research institutions and the offshore energy industry (Oil & Gas, Wind, and other renewables). He earned a Master’s Degree in Ocean Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Doctorate Degree in Applied Marine Physics at the University of Miami. He also completed a post-Doctorate appointment at the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advance Remote Sensing of the University of Miami. He has been involved in multiple aspects of design (and requalification) of offshore Oil & Gas and wind farm infrastructure and has participated in several studies related to the generation and implementation of associated operational, design, and structural assessment criteria, including the generation of recommended practices.

Dr. Ramos has also been involved in several field experiments focused on further understanding atmospheric, oceanographic, and air-sea interaction phenomena, ranging from internal waves to momentum and heat transfer on the ocean surface. He is author or coauthor of more than 30 peer-reviewed technical articles and several conference proceedings papers dealing with modeling and interpretation of data collected by shore-based (HF radar), vessel-based (X-Band radar) and satellite-based (altimeter, scatterometer, SAR) remote sensing systems as well as moored (buoy) and non-moored instrumentation. He has participated in and led several meteorological and oceanographic (metocean) studies in the Gulf of Mexico — including the real-time monitoring of the Macondo oil spill with satellite imagery (US DHLS Science and Technology Impact Award) — and works actively in the characterization of the Loop Current and Loop Current Eddies that shed from it (using measurements collected from dedicated vessels and other data sources), the assessment of accuracy of existing simplified and regional circulation models and the deployment (and associated data analysis and interpretation) of metocean instrumentation in moorings and other offshore measuring platforms. He participates in and has been an integral part of several studies concerning the characterization of the Loop Current System for Joint Industry Projects and public entities (e.g., CASE EJIP, NASEM UGOS).

Dr. Ramos is member of several technical organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (COPRI Chapter), AGU, MTS, SNAME and SUT and participates actively in scientific review committees in the U.S. and abroad. He is also engaged in GCOOS activities and contributes to various discussions of interests for the regional association.

Since graduating with a B.Sc. in Geology and Oceanography (1981) and M.Sc in Oceanography (1982), Jan has gained more than 35 years of experience in commercial oceanography. He is a Principal Oceanographer with DHI Water and Environment and Ocean Sierra LLC. Previously, he was Partnership Managing Director for the Energy Sector at British Maritime Technology, and held global and regional senior management positions in the UK, Singapore and USA with Fugro. His oceanographic experience has included studies in the North and South Atlantic, South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. This has included both field measurement and monitoring system campaigns and the detailed analysis and interpretation of data.

Van Smirren is a founding member and Honorary Secretary of the Houston Branch of the Society of Underwater Technology (SUT). In 2004, his contribution to the development of education and outreach in underwater technology was recognized by SUT, which bestowed him with a Fellowship. He is Past President and currently Treasurer of GCOOS and Chairman of the SUT-US Group on Environmental Forces.

Thomas Wissing has been an Oceanographer with the Special Projects Cell, Naval Oceanographic Office, for roughly 13½ years. He is responsible for day-to-day project guidance and oversight for specialized products. Prior to that, he spent six years in the Warfighting Support Center, working on everything from vessel- to mooring- to satellite-based datasets that supported anti-submarine and surface assets, as well as mine warfare.

While public service is his primary role, Wissing has also spent his career advocating for and supporting marine and coastal education and tech advancements. He helped organize and support various facets of the Oceans In Action Workshop from 2010-2019 and he is Past Chair, Vice-Chair, and Treasurer of the Marine Technology Society (MTS) Gulf Coast section.

Recently, he was the MTS-Chair organizer for the MTS/IEEE/OES OCEANS 2020 Gulf Coast/Singapore Conference, the first virtual OCEANS conference in its 50 year history. He is also supporting OCEANS 2023 Biloxi as a technical program champion.

Wissing completed his B.S. in Marine Science at the University of South Carolina, a Geography M.S. at the University of Southern Mississippi, and is a current DoD SMART Retention doctoral student, expecting to complete his Ph.D. in 2023.

Dr. Kate Hubbard leads the harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring and research program for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWC-FWRI), and since 2020, has directed FWC’s Center for Red Tide Research. As a research scientist, she works closely with a broad network of international, federal, regional, state, county, academic, nonprofit, industry, and citizen partners as well as the IOOS Regional Associations to sustain and advance harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring. She also prioritizes engaging junior scientists in research and communication. Hubbard works with this broad network to examine biological responses to environmental perturbations across varying spatiotemporal scales. Recent enhancements to Florida’s HAB monitoring network under her direction have focused on new, enhanced, and/or sustained biological, chemical, and physical observation capabilities for Karenia brevis that can be more broadly applied to other regional HABs as well. Her specific expertise in genomics and ecology has helped evaluate drivers of HABs and other species using environmental DNA (eDNA), handheld detection technology, or submersible in situ detection tools such as the Imaging Flow CytoBot. As a Co-Investigator of the NSF/NIEHS-funded Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Hubbard is involved in HAB detection and forecasting projects across the U.S. to better understand and predict blooms and their impacts, and is committed to working at the interface of HAB research and management. She received her B.A. in Biology from New College of Florida and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biological Oceanography from the University of Washington. She has served on the National HAB Committee since 2017.

Dr. Kimberly Yates is a Research Oceanographer at the U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Center for Coastal and Marine Science (SPCMSC). She specializes in regional-scale, integrated science studies that examine how changes in coastal ecosystem processes may impact or mitigate risks from coastal hazards, using a whole system perspective that considers the interactions and linkages among chemistry, biology and the physical environment.

Much of her recent work has focused on coastal and ocean acidification impacts in estuaries and on coral reefs; how seafloor erosion in coastal carbonate ecosystems changes risks from sea level rise, waves and storms; and identifying and characterizing coastal climate change refuges. She currently leads the Tampa Bay Ocean Acidification Monitoring Program in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and University of South Florida and has established the first real-time ocean acidification monitoring systems in Tampa Bay and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Yates has been a member of the U.S. Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification (IWG- OA) of the National Science and Technology Subcommittee since 2009 and served as Co-Chair of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program — Ocean Acidification Subcommittee from 2011 to 2016. From 2015 to present, she has served as a founding Executive Committee Member, Steering Committee Member and recently completed her term as Co-Chair of the Science Working Group for the Southeast Ocean and Coastal Acidification Network. She became a Steering Committee Member of the GCOOS Gulf of Mexico Coastal Acidification Network (GCAN) in 2016.

As the current Chair of GCAN’s Steering Committee, she has worked to expand the GCAN stakeholder network by engaging end-users directly in development of research and monitoring plans, and has facilitated partnerships across the Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Region acidification networks to work toward better understanding linkages between environmental health in the Gulf of Mexico and along the U.S. Southeast Coast. Yates completed her Ph.D. in Geology with specialization in Biogeochemistry (1996) and her undergraduate degree in Geology and the Honors Program at the University of South Florida (1992).

Dr. Hogan is an oceanographer who serves as the Ocean Sciences Branch Chief for the National Centers for Environmental Information. In addition to directing the global ocean forecasting research, Hogan has been modeling and forecasting the Gulf of Mexico circulation for many years. These models have been and are used by many in the community for research and for boundary conditions to nested regional models within the Gulf.

As an oceanographer at the Naval Research Laboratory — Stennis Space Center, Dr. Hogan has been working in the area of ocean dynamics and prediction since 1987. He served as head of the Ocean Monitoring and Prediction Systems Section from 2007 to 2009 and since 2009 has served as the head of the Open Ocean Processes and Prediction Systems Section. His interests include ocean circulation dynamics, coupled process studies, probabilistic forecast methods, and development and application of real-time forecast systems and products. Hogan serves on the international board GODAE Ocean View Science Team. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 refereed journal publications and is the recipient of five NRL Alan Berman Publication Awards. He is also a member of the American Geophysical Union and the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. Hogan received his Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2000, his M.S. degree in Geophysics from the University of New Orleans in 1987 and B.S. in Geology from the University of Kansas in 1985.

In addition to directing the global ocean forecasting research as section head (inclusive, i.e. research to operations), Hogan has been modeling and forecasting the Gulf of Mexico circulation for many years. He has employed the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) and the Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). He employed the first real-time 1/25 degree (~4 km) HYCOM-based forecast system for the Gulf of Mexico, which continues to produce a 7-day forecast every day. Variants of this system have been running since about 2007 and the results are made available to the community through the HYCOM.org file server. These results have been and are used by many in the community for research and for boundary conditions to nested regional models within the Gulf. For the last several years, he has directed a real-time ensemble forecasting effort in the Gulf of Mexico designed to perform long-term (~60 day) predictions of the Loop Current Eddy shedding process. Hogan has also employed a coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave forecast system to study coupled processes in the Gulf.

Kirsten Larsen joined NOAA’s National Centers of Environmental Information (NCEI) in 2016 as the Coastal Data Science Advisor. She manages the NCEI coastal science portfolio, which includes developing and maintaining data products such as the Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas, HypoxiaWatch, Gulf HABS Observing System, as well as working with coastal data providers both within and external to NOAA to help archive their data at NCEI. Previously she worked at NOAA Headquarters in several positions.

Larsen led a national habitat science team for NOAA Fisheries in the Office of Science & Technology, and prior to that she was the assistant to the NOAA Fisheries Chief Scientist. Kirsten was a Sea Grant Knauss Fellow from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) where she earned her M.S. in Biology and Fisheries. She worked as a research fisheries biologist at USM’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and with the NOAA Fisheries Pascagoula Laboratory where she spent much of her time in the marsh and out at sea. Kirsten is married to another NOAA employee, and they have three young children plus his two adult daughters.

Dr. Antonietta Quigg is the Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG). She is a Regents Professor in the Department of Marine Biology (TAMUG) and has a joint appointment in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University in College Station (TAMU). Dr. Quigg also has graduate appointments in the Marine Biology Interdisciplinary Degree Program (TAMUG), Department of Marine Science (TAMUG), Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Interdisciplinary Research Program (TAMU) and the Department of Life Science at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi.

Dr. Quigg uses photosynthetic organisms (phytoplankton, seaweeds, seagrasses, wetland plants) as proxies to investigate consequences of environmental perturbations on aquatic environments. Her research is conducted in a diversity of places from Galveston Bay (Texas), the Gulf of Mexico, to Prince William Sound (Alaska) and further afield to the Gulf of Aqaba (Israel), Moreton Bay (Australian), and others. Laboratory studies compliment field based research and involve examining the composition of ballast water, the fate and transport of engineered nanoparticles as well as potential use of algae as an alternative fuel source (biofuels).

Since arriving at A&M in 2003 she has (is) participated in more than 50 extramural research awards (total of >$20 million) funded by NSF, NOAA, EPA, GOMRI, Texas Sea Grant and other agencies. As the principal investigator, she has raised more than $10 million. Further, she has been awarded ~$700,000 from competitively conferred internal grants to faculty at TAMUG and TAMU. As a result, she and her group of postdoctoral fellows and students have published >120 peer reviewed papers since 2003 in a variety of journals including Nature, Science, Limnol. Oceanogr., Limnol. Oceanogr. Letters, PLOs One and the Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences. In fact, the first paper in Limnol. Oceanogr. Letters was led by Dr. Quigg and her colleagues. Her research is presented at conferences around the world and she is frequently invited to give talks.

Dr. Quigg is a member of professional societies including the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation. She reviews at many papers each per year, most frequently for the Journal of Phycology, Coastal and Shelf Science, Journal of Plankton Research, Estuaries and Coasts and the Bulletin of Marine Science and serves as an editor for two journals. Dr. Quigg frequently reviews grants from a variety of agencies. She has also has severed on panels for NOAA and the EPA.

Dr. Quigg serves on numerous committees — both at the university and in the community, in part due to her role, and in part due to her various passions. She was the first female faculty member in the Department of Marine Biology at TAMUG in 2003. Amongst her greatest passions are serving and promoting fellow women and minority students (English is also her second language). Her roles include promoting education and outreach, mentoring, collegiality and support amongst all members of the campus and broader community.

Dr. Stephan D. Howden is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he has directed the Central Gulf of Mexico Ocean Observing System since 2003.  Howden has been involved with what became the GCOOS since 2003. His activities with GCOOS include:

• Member of the Board of Directors since 2010;
• HF Radar Technical Steering Team for the NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System Program Office, 2010-present.
• Chair of the GCOOS Observing System Committee from its inception in 2005 until 2014;
• Chair of the GCOOS Gulf Glider Task Team since its inception in 2013 until 2014 (still a participating member);
• Chair of the Business Plan Working Group 2004-2005 that produced the first business plan for the organization;
• Member of the 2011 writing team for the GCOOS Build-Out Plan required for submission to the NOAA IOOS Office (led the HFR and AUV sections) and subsequent writing teams updating the plan;
• Participated as a GCOOS representative at the NFRA meeting to coordinate all of the Regional Association Build-Out Plans in spring 2011 in Portland, Maine;
• Participated in revision of GCOOS Build-Out Plan for submission to the NFRA and NOAA IOOS Office after the NFRA meeting in spring 2011.

Selected related activities include:

• Member Program Advisory Committee for the Ocean Observatories Initiative, from 2013 until it ended in 2015;
• Member of the Review Panel for the IOOS Plan for a National HF Radar Surface Current Capability, 2008;
• Members of Nutrient Priority Team of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance;
• Served as a panel member for a NOAA Town Hall Meeting on the role of the private sector in IOOS during the Oceans09 Conference in Biloxi, MS;
• Participant at The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Coordination Workshop, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Nov. 7-9, 2006.

Dr. Lynn. K. (Nick) Shay holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Physical Oceanography (Applied Math minor for the Ph.D. specializing in upper ocean response to strong atmospheric forcing events) from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a B.S. in Physical Oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology. He is currently Associate Dean and Professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and directs the Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory. He has published more than 115 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier journals and books and has chaired or served on 40 student committees.

The overarching goal of the research is to conduct scientific and technological investigations that require both basic and applied research activities that have societal relevance at its core. In this context, research interests include: experimental and theoretical investigations of the ocean response and coupled air-sea interactions during strong atmospheric forcing events (tropical and extratropical cyclones, atmospheric jets, fronts), Loop Current effects of the atmospheric boundary layer, coastal oceanographic process studies associated with the Florida Current, radar oceanography using high-frequency radar and satellite altimetry, and temperature, salinity and velocity profiling techniques from floats and aircraft-deployable measurements during hurricanes. A large fraction of this effort has been in and above the Gulf of Mexico and northwest Caribbean Sea and is directly relevant to multiple NOAA missions, BP-sponsored Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative and the NAS Loop Current Program.

Shay and his colleagues developed the ocean heat content monitoring from space-based systems for tropical cyclone intensity forecasting that has been in use for the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basin — now operational at NOAA NESDIS and UM. Working with Teledyne Webb, Shay and colleagues developed a float capable of measuring physical and biochemical processes that can be deployed from ships and aircraft.

Dr. Shay is an elected fellow of the American Meteorological Society since 2012, was part of the NASA Genesis Rapid Intensity Program Team receiving an achievement award (2011) for participation in the field campaign and more recently was awarded the Richard H. Hagemayer Award (2016) by NOAA’s Office of the Federal Coordinator of Meteorology. He is also on the Board of Directors for SECOORA, GCOOS and the Florida Institute of Oceanography.

Suraida Nañez-James is the CEO and Founder for the Gulf Reach Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and an international leader uniting the Gulf of Mexico through education, health and advocacy with a focus on youth and underrepresented communities. She is also a contractor with Groundswells where she works with NOAA Ocean Exploration on K-12 education and outreach initiatives across the nation.

Nañez-James has been in the field of marine science and STEM education for more than 20 years working in academia, for nonprofits, the Texas State Aquarium and schools. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Marine Fisheries from Texas A&M University at Galveston and a Master of Science from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a focus on marine fisheries and ecological research. She has sailed on the R/V JOIDES Resolution with IODP and the R/V Falkor with the Schmidt Ocean Institute plus other expeditions with the Flower Garden Banks NMS as the science communication and education lead officer. She has facilitated and contributed to the National Ocean Exploration Forum and Ocean Exploration: Blueprint 2032 and currently serves on the Education and Engagement Steering Committee for the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. She has a passion for giving back to her community, especially working with Latino/a/BIPOC youth, science communication work and environmental justice and climate issues. Her love and expertise of the ocean and STEM make for a perfect combination to inspire the next generation of scientists and ocean advocates. She loves spending time with her family, going to the beach, hiking/running and traveling.

Dr. Sara Graves is the Director of the Information Technology and Systems Center (ITSC), University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, University Professor and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She directs research in scientific data management, data mining, interoperability of data and systems, large-scale distributed systems and geoinformatics.

Graves has also served as the Principal Investigator on more than $70 million worth of research and development grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, NOAA, Dept of Defense, etc.  and as Co-I of the NSF Scholarship for Service program at UAH and past Secretary General of the International Council for Science Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA).

Graves is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Gulf Research Program Board and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) Board. She was a founding member of both the NOAA Data Archive and Access Requirements Working Group (DAARWG) of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) and the Science Advisory Board of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Climate Change Science Institute.

Dr. Brian Roberts originally hails from upstate New York and spent most of his childhood in the northeastern region of the U.S. He earned a BS in Biology and Philosophy from the College of William and Mary before earning a Master’s Degree in Marine Science from Boston University and working at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He earned a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University in 2004 and was a postdoctoral research associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory before joining the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) faculty in 2007. He has served as the Associate Director of Science since 2017 and was appointed Interim Executive Director in July 2022 before having his appointment as Executive Director and Chief Scientist of LUMCON approved by the Board of Regents in January 2023.

Dr. Roberts oversees LUMCON’s Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry Lab, which carries out research along the continuum from headwater streams and lakes to large rivers, wetlands, estuaries and open-ocean ecosystems with a particular interest in how these systems are altered as a result of human activities as well as how restoration efforts might mitigate some of these deleterious impacts. In addition, Dr. Roberts has directed LUMCON’s National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program since 2011, which has mentored ~80 students in their formative undergraduate years.

LUMCON’s mission is to promote, facilitate and conduct research and education collaborations among Louisiana’s universities in marine and coastal sciences relevant to the sustainability of coastal and marine environments of the Gulf of Mexico. LUMCON, a program of the Louisiana Board of Regents, is a statewide academic endeavor to focus and strengthen the effectiveness of foundational marine science needed to address the environmental and socioeconomic challenges facing Louisiana and the nation. It provides unparalleled opportunities in marine science and education to the research community and public alike. Anchored by a first-rate marine laboratory, the DeFelice Marine Center, LUMCON is embedded in Louisiana’s dynamic wetland environment and conveniently located on a gateway to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. From this facility, LUMCON operates a world-class fleet of research vessels unmatched in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2023, LUMCON expanded its programs through the opening of a maritime research and outreach facility (Blue Works) in Houma. LUMCON is the hub and facilitator of a consortial group currently including more than 40 partners at every educational level, from technical to doctoral studies (including members of the Louisiana State University System, University of Louisiana System, Southern University System, Louisiana Community and Technical College System, and Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities). LUMCON connects by enhancing collaboration by linking the consortium through stronger federal, state, and local partnerships. LUMCON enriches by giving back to the community through education and outreach initiatives. LUMCON transforms by leading and partnering in scientific innovations designed to stabilize and strengthen coastal and marine environments for the state and the nation. Collectively these effects supports LUMCON’s vision of “Our coasts and oceans restored and thriving through innovation, collaboration, and community action.” LUMCON’s Environmental Monitoring System  collects and archives real-time meteorological and hydrographic data to provide a broad community of scientists, educators, students, and the public with quality-controlled environmental data from Louisiana’s Gulf coast. LUMCON has been collecting data (and providing it to GCOOS) from a suite of environmental monitoring stations since 2000. Researchers at LUMCON and throughout the consortium contribute data to and frequently use data posted through the GCOOS portal.

Over the last 25 years, Walker’s research has focused on advancing the understanding of circulation in the Gulf of Mexico by developing techniques to detect and track coastal and oceanic water masses. She has been involved in the real-time surveillance of Gulf of Mexico circulation (river plumes and Loop Current) since 1991.  She served as Associate Director of LSU’s Earth Scan Laboratory (www.esl.lsu.edu) alongside founder Oscar Huh, and became its Director in 2003. She has managed research programs funded by NASA, NSF, MMS, USACOE, LA Board of Regents, NOAA Sea Grant, GCOOS, GOMRI, and the Water Institute of the Gulf.

Walker’s  experience includes the near real-time use of geostationary satellite measurements (from GOES-East) to track hurricanes/tropical storms and to improve understanding of air-sea interactions related to hurricane intensity changes over the Loop Current and GoM warm and cold-core eddies. Her use of satellite data for emergency response activities includes oil spill tracking during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon event, coastal flood mapping of storm surge, estuarine-shelf and shelf-slope exchanges after hurricane events, tracking Mississippi River flood waters and harmful algal blooms in coastal Louisiana. Much of her research integrates satellite data with in-situ measurements of currents, suspended sediments, and chlorophyll a. Her published research includes field and satellite studies of Louisiana bay and shelf circulation, understanding the role of Loop Current frontal eddies in GoM circulation, how hypoxia relates to shelf chlorophyll a; and storm erosion of coastal Louisiana. She has worked with at least a dozen numerical modelers of circulation, sediment transport, and ecology in her career at LSU.
She has managed the development of satellite data products in support of Education and Outreach as well as science from a 20+ year history of polar-orbiting and geostationary satellite sensors (AVHRR, GOES-East GVAR, Oceansat-1 OCM, MODIS, VIIRS). Daily-updates of images and animations of coastal hazards and events are made easily accessible to the public on the Earth Scan Laboratory web page (www.esl.lsu.edu). Currently she and staff are developing new SST products from the new Advanced Baseline Imagery (ABI) of GOES-16 and coastal sediment products from VIIRS.

Walker is a motivated advocate for the use of satellite data as a teaching tool in K-12 education and has participated in Louisiana Sea Grant’s Ocean Commotion event for K-8 students at LSU for ~20 years! She teaches an undergraduate course entitled “Introduction to Oceanography” and a graduate level course in “Satellite Oceanography” each year.

Xiao Qi is a Scientific Computing Specialist in the Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University (TAMU), and a member of the GCOOS Data Management and Cyberinfrastructure team. His primary responsibilities include the development and maintenance of the GANDALF Uncrewed Systems Portal application, along with conducting advanced research in the field of Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning.

Xiao obtained his Master’s degree in Data Science from George Washington University in 2023. He also holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science, which he earned in China in 2018. Before coming to the U.S., Xiao had two years of valuable industry experience as a full-stack software engineer, equipping him with a diverse skill set that enhances his current research endeavors.

Megan Howson is a Marine Mammal Biologist and Data Scientist at GCOOS for the CETACEAN project. The Compilation of Environmental, Threats, and Animal Data for Cetacean Population Health Analyses (CETACEAN) is a five-year collaborative project funded through NRDA Open Ocean Restoration Area funds from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, with NOAA as the Lead Implementing Trustee. The project, managed through GCOOS, is focusing on helping to restore cetacean species injured during the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including common bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bryde’s whales, and sperm whales.

Howson’s role at GCOOS focuses on creating, maintaining, and updating the marine mammal CETACEAN database.

Howson has a master’s degree in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University Galveston (TAMU-Galveston). Her master’s project focused on identifying cultural patterns in behavior and acoustics across several cetacean species. She also obtained dual Bachelor’s degrees in Marine Science and Biology from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and minored in Chemistry and Psychology. She has previously worked on projects studying cetaceans in California, Namibia and Greece. Her work included population surveys, behavioral studies, acoustic analysis and updating photo-ID databases.

Jerad King is a Research Specialist I, GIS Developer, in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University with GCOOS. He manages the GIS component of current projects in addition to bolstering the role of GIS as a core technology at GCOOS for existing works.

King graduated from Texas A&M University with a master’s degree in Geography in 2024, with research focused on novel methods of GNSS remote sensing. Working with the Cyber Infrastructure and Spatial Decision Intelligence research group, he participated in multiple projects including the development of ESRI StoryMaps for AP curriculum. In graduate school, King focused on honing skills related to the development of GIS software to enhance the ability of researchers to study the environment.