Explorers
Explorers

 

Sounds of the Southern Ocean 2005 Explorers

Robert Dziak, PhD Robert Dziak, PhD
Geophysicist
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA and Oregon State University
Principal Investigator, Sounds of the Southern Ocean

As the expedition leader for the Sounds of the Southern Ocean Project, Dr. Dziak is responsible for the planning, logistics and coordination of the numerous resources and agencies (both national and international) required for this experiment. He has served as a principal investigator within the VENTS Program of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory since July 1995, and leads the Acoustic Monitoring Project, a diversified program in marine geophysics and underwater acoustics that utilizes the U.S. Navy's Sound Surveillance System for environmental applications. Dr. Dziak is also an Associate Professor (research) at Oregon State University in the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies. He received a BS in geology and mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1985, an MS in Geophysics from the University of Memphis in 1988, and a PhD in Geosciences from Oregon State University in 1997. Dr Dziak has been named a Presidential Young Investigator (2000) and a Fulbright Scholar (1999) in recognition of his efforts in using hydroacoustic techniques to detect seafloor earthquake and volcanic activity throughout the world’s oceans. Dr. Dziak’s work was highlighted by Discover magazine as one of the top 100 science discoveries of 2004.

Del Bohnenstiehl, PhD Del Bohnenstiehl, PhD
Marine Geophysicist
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory &
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Columbia University

Del Bohnenstiehl uses seafloor mapping and passive underwater acoustics to explorer remote ocean areas. Understanding submarine earthquakes and their association with volcanic, tectonic and hydrothermal processes have been the main focus of his research. Other interests include the use of underwater acoustics in support of a Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty and the monitoring of ice-generated noise within the Antarctic. He is currently the Storke-Doherty Lecturer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where he completed his PhD in Marine Geology and Geophysics in 2002. Del also holds a BS in Geology from Eastern Illinois University (1995) and a MS in Geology from Vanderbilt University (1998).


William HanshumakerWilliam Hanshumaker
Oregon State University
Public Marine Education Specialist
Extension Sea Grant Faculty

William Hanshumaker has been educating the general public and self-selected audiences in free-choice science education since 1977. With over sixteen years of experience at the Oregon Museum and Science and Industry, and 12 years at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center, Bill had opportunities to develop, deliver and evaluate science curriculum to a variety of audiences; ranging from families to school groups to Elderhostel seniors. The instructional platforms included classrooms, fieldtrips, labs, workshops, video production, museum displays incorporating aquariums and other live animals, computer-mediated and other interactive exhibitry. His doctoral research focuses on developing and evaluating an interactive aquarium concept utilizing PIT-tagged fish. Bill's personal interests include deep-sea research, SCUBA diving and mountaineering.


Sara Heimlich Sara Heimlich (interview)
CIMRS/NOAA, VENTS Acoustics Group
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Marine Mammal Scientist

Sara Heimlich is the Marine Mammal Scientist for the Sounds of the Sea Expedition 2005. She has been with the Acoustics group of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboaratories' VENTS program since 2001, working principally on the acoustic characteristics of cetacean vocalizations and secondarily on seismic activity. Ms. Heimlich has participated in marine mammal investigations throughout the United States and in several foreign countries since 1978. Her principal interest has been the behavioral ecology of cetaceans and she was the Principal Investigator for ground-breaking projects in this field: on killer whales in the San Juan Islands and short-finned pilot whales in the Canary Islands. She has worked on a variety of cetacean surveys in diverse capacities from Administrative Assistant and Cruise Leader for the SCANS surveys in the North Sea, to Acoustic Observer for several NOAA and MMS surveys. Sara has authored magazine articles for BBC Wildlife, Sonar, Natural History, and Whale Watcher. She wrote "Cetaceans", a chapter for "Sea Life: A Complete Guide to the Marine Environment", and co-authored "Killer Whales" published by Voyageur Press, and "Social Learning in Cetaceans: Hunting, Hearing and Hierarchies" for "Mammalian Social Learning: Comparative and Ecological Perspectives", Cambridge University Press.


Haru MatsumotoHaru Matsumoto , PhD (interview)
CIMRS/NOAA, Oregon State University, Newport, OR
CoPI in Sound in the Southern Oceans 2005
Research Associate

Haru Matsumoto, born and raised in Matsuyama, Japan, came to the USA in 1976 as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii and studied ocean engineering. He was an acoustic engineer at side-scan sonar survey group, SeaMARCII, in Hawaii and had been an interim manager of the same group. He joined CIMRS/NOAA in Newport, Oregon in 1991. He has involved in developments of several other sonar systems including an autonomous hydrophone system, often referred to as HARU-phone (Hydrophone for Acoustic Research in Underwater), which has been the tool for a long-term monitoring of underwater acoustic events related to seismicity and marine mammal calls. Currently 17 of them are still in operation in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans collecting data, approximately 1GB/day. Other systems he is developing are: a tether-free semi-real-time hydrophone float (QUEphone) and a WIreless hydrophone BuoY (WIBY). His research interest includes signal processing, acoustic imaging, back scatter, propagation modeling, synthetic aperture and array design. He enjoys playing tennis and classical guitar.

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Dave MellingerDave Mellinger, PhD
Assistant Professor, Oregon State University and
NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

A specialist in analyzing whale sounds, Dr. David Mellinger has worked since the early 1990's on ways to learn more about whales from the sounds they make. He has worked extensively on developing methods for automatic call recognition, and has applied these methods to studying sperm, blue, fin, minke, bowhead, and right whales and harbor seals. He has developed software for acoustic processing, including the widely-used program Ishmael for acoustic analysis. He has applied his expertise in bioacoustics to projects in the Pacific from the tropics to the Bering and Beaufort Seas, in the Atlantic from the tropics to Nova Scotia, in the Indian Ocean, and off Antarctica. Dr. Mellinger received B.S. degrees in math and philosophy at MIT in 1983, and a Ph. in computer science from Stanford in 1992. He studied whale sounds in the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell from 1992-96 and worked on seal sounds at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute from 1997-99. Since 2000, he has been at a joint NOAA/Oregon State University laboratory in Newport, Oregon, where he has pursued the above research.

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Minkyu ParkMinkyu Park, PhD
Seismologist
Korea Polar Research Institute, KORDI

Dr. Park is a senior researcher at Korea Polar Research Institute. His primary research interest is the excitation mechanism of oceanic T-waves generated from submarine earthquakes and volcanic activities. He's also interested in effects of source mechanism and hypocentral depth on T-wave envelope and modeling acoustic signals from various kinds of tectonic/volcanic sources. He received a BS in geology from Seoul National University and a PhD in geophysics from the University of Washington in 1997. He worked on earthquake physics at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia from 1998-1999 and seismoacoustic wave modeling at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Seattle from 1999-2001. He joined Korea Ocean and Development Institute (KORDI) in 2001. He has participated in numerous research cruises in Korean Waters, the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean.