Andy David

A native Floridian, Andy David has been a NOAA researcher for 22 years at the Panama City Laboratory working on a wide range of topics including: identification of hatchery-reared red drum after their release into the wild, recruitment dynamics of juvenile snapper along Florida’s west coast, and the efficacy of Marine Protected Areas as a … Continued

Mike Nicholson

Mike has worked as an ROV technician for DSSI for 12 years. He works with the sampling systems and basic marine hardware, and his main job is operating the winch. He is deeply interested in the science and wants to make sure the scientists are happy and that they get the results they want.

Toshinobu Mikagawa

Originally from Japan, Toshi will be piloting the ROV with Don. Having worked for JAMSTEC previously, he has worked with ROVs for a long time. Toshi will remain with the ROV on the ship for a further 3 months as part of the ROV shakedown phase.

Douglas Duane Smith

Mostly based in Montana, Doug has been working offshore since 1975. He has a background in seafloor hydrography, but on this cruise, he will be working on the ROV hardware and software systems, as well as cameras.

Don Liberatore

Don was hired to rebuild ROV Ocean Explorer MK3 for the expedition, and he works as a liason between the ROV crew and the scientists to make sure that the goals of the expedition are achieved. His background is primarily in manned submarines such as the Johnson-Sea-Link, but he has also worked with ROVs previously.

Hayley Dosser

Hayley is in the last year of her PhD program in physical oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle. She previously completed an undergraduate and Masters degree in Physics at the University of Alberta in Canada. Her current research focuses on ‘internal waves’ in the Arctic Ocean, and how their energy and mixing has been … Continued

Spencer Kawamoto

Spencer Kawamoto is a development engineer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He started at Scripps in 1999 as an intern and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at UCSD in 2000, joining the Scripps Hydraulics Lab permanently. He is a expert field engineer with research interests in coastal oceanography and has spent many … Continued

Luc Rainville

Dr. Luc Rainville is a physical oceanographer at the Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington. His research interests reside primarily in observational physical oceanography and span the wide range of spatial and temporal scales in the ocean. From large-scale circulation to internal waves to turbulence, the projects he is involved in focus on the interactions … Continued

Ryan McDougall-Fisher

Ryan has a B.S. (Hons) in marine and Antarctic science (2013) from the University of Tasmania, and continued through a post graduate Master’s degree in Marine and Antarctic science (2014). Ryan’s Master’s thesis focused on the behavioural, temporal, and environmental influential factors contributing to Southern Elephant seal dive behaviour. In late 2014, Ryan volunteered at … Continued

Dmitry Brazhnikov

Dmitry is a Ph.D. student in physical oceanography at School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Before joining UAF, he received M.Sc. in “Applied Physics and Mathematics” from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and worked as a research assistant with specialization in ice engineering. However, Dmitry’s interest was always in … Continued