Jediah Bishop
Barry Brake
Joseph Chojnacki
Roger Davis
Scott Ferguson
Chris Kelley
Stacy Ladnier
Mark Leicmonas
Francis Lichowski
Emily Lundblad
Blake Martin
Charles Menza
Seth A. Mogk
Tony Montgomery
John Rooney
David Sallis
John Stange
Paul Trakimas
Robert Wilson
Operation Laser Line 2006 Explorers
Jediah Bishop
Survey Technician
Oceanic Imaging Consultants, Inc.
Jediah Bishop received a BS in marine science from Hawaii Pacific University and is currently working as a survey technician for Oceanic Imaging Consultants, Inc., a company that makes software that acquires sonar and laser data, processes it, and ultimately creates images from the mysteries that lie in the deep.
Joseph Chojnacki
Marine Ecology Research Specialist
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
Joe Chojnacki majored in biology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. After graduating, he did turtle conservation work, guided whitewater rafting trips, tracked wolves, and interned with the Douglas County Forestry Department in Wisconsin. In 2001, he joined the NOAA Fisheries’ marine debris removal program in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. He participated in three seasons of marine debris removal at Kure and Pearl and Hermes atolls, while becoming more involved in the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) survey cruises around the Pacific, specializing in benthic habitat surveys. In 2003, Chojnacki entered the master’s program in geography at the University of Hawaii - Manoa, and at the same time joined CRED’s mapping group. He is near completion of his thesis, a study of how wave power influences the shape of coral reefs.
Roger Davis
Software Engineer
University of Hawaii
Roger Davis has been a software engineer for the Hawaii Mapping Research Group at the University of Hawaii, since 1991.
Scott Ferguson
Lead Logistics Coordinator
NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystems Division
Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
Scott Ferguson leads the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division’s benthic habitat mapping team, a group that is responsible for developing maps of the coral reef environment throughout Hawaii, Guam, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and other US-affiliated Pacific islands. These maps are used by ocean resource managers and scientists throughout the Pacific to help understand coral reef processes. Since graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978, Ferguson has participated in dozens of surveys around the world in support of geophysical research, nautical charting, and underwater cable installations. He is particularly interested in the design, development, and installation of shipboard oceanographic and mapping systems. On this cruise, he hopes to learn how laser-based survey systems can be used to complement more commonly used sonar mapping tools.
Chris Kelley
Program Biologist
Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratories
Stacy Ladnier
Ocean Exploration Data Manager
General Dynamics
National Coastal Data Development Center
Stacy Ladnier is the technical lead for the cruise information management system (CIMS). CIMS is being developed by the National Coastal Data Development Center to assist in automating end-to-end data management for NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) expeditions. She is joining this expedition to conduct the first sea trial for the Web-based at-sea information collection portion of CIMS. Ladnier received a BS in mathematics, with an emphasis on computer science, from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Mark Leicmonas
Laser Line Scan System Operator
Francis Lichowski
Seabed Mapping Specialist
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
Emily Lundblad
GIS Specialist
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
As a geographic information science (GIS) specialist, Emily Lundblad works for the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division’s Pacific Island Benthic Habitat Mapping Center. While at sea (and back on shore), she assists in sea-floor mapping with real-time multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data acquisition, post processing, map production, and spatial analysis. Starting out with a BS in GIS at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi (and growing up in a port city/beach town), she chose to apply her digital mapping and analysis skills to coastal and marine environments. She pursued an MS in geography with emphasis in marine resource management at Oregon State University. Lundblad has worked for NOAA for two yrs.
Laser Line Scan System Operator
Scientific Applications International Corporation
Charles Menza
Spatial Ecologist
NOAA Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment
Charlie Menza is a spatial ecologist on the biogeography team of NOAA’s Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. He holds a BS in biology and environmental sciences from McGill University, and an MS in zoology from the University of Toronto. For the past three yrs, Menza has been working on projects which merge spatial modeling, geographic information systems, and statistics to better understand the linkages between reef fish and benthic habitats, and to produce more efficient reef fish sampling methods. He is also a NOAA diver and conducts reef fish surveys. On this mission, Menza will be observing the use and products of the laser line scanner. He is especially interested in linking benthic habitat maps derived from the scanner to reef fish ecology.
Seth A. Mogk
Laser Line Scan System Supervisor
Scientific Applications International Corporation
Seth Mogk, currently a marine project engineer with Science Applications International Corporation’s (SAIC) Marine Operations Division, will be leading the laser line scan technical group on this cruise. He holds a BS in Earth sciences, concentrating in geography, from the Pennsylvania State University. He started working at sea in 1984 with a commercial seismic survey company, and then spent 15 yrs with Scripps Institution of Oceanography as a marine technician and later ageophysical engineer, before joining SAIC in 2003. Mogk specializes in the technical aspects of geophysical methods data acquisition, including acoustic (i.e., multibeam echosounding, side scan sonar, seismic), magnetometry, and now laser light.
Tony Montgomery
Marine Biologist
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
Division of Aquatic Resources
Tony Montgomery earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1998. He has worked in the aquarium, aquaculture, and resource management fields. In 2003, he joined the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources. Since then, he has worked on deep-water corals and invasive species issues. In 2004, Montgomery conducted an extensive assessment of the black coral population in the Au’au Channel. His interests include using mix-gas closed-circuit rebreathers to study the deep coral reefs, and he is a member of the Association of Marine Exploration.
John Rooney
Chief Scientist — Operation Laser Line 2006
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
Dr. John Rooney will be chief scientist for this cruise. He has worked for the NOAA Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center in the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division’s Pacific Island Benthic Habitat Mapping Center for three years. He is primarily responsible for mapping biologically important sea-floor characteristics, using multibeam data and optical imagery obtained from camera sled tows, remotely operated vehicles, and other sources. Rooney holds a PhD in coastal geology from the University of Hawaii and an MS in biological oceanography from the same institution. He has lived in Hawaii for more than 20 yrs and worked in, on, or around the ocean for most of that period. He enjoys scuba diving on deeper coral reefs around the islands with a closed circuit rebreather.
David Sallis
Ocean Exploration Web Coordinator
General Dynamics
National Coastal Data Development Center
David Sallis attended the College of Charleston from 1982 to 1985 and completed his bachelor's degree at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He earned his master's degree in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2004. He has been a computer programmer for nearly 20 yrs, working as a contractor to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Navy, and NOAA.
John Stange
Laser Line Scan System Operator
Scientific Applications International Corporation
Paul Trakimas
Laser Line Scan System Operator
Scientific Applications International Corporation
Paul Trakimas is a field engineer with Scientific Applications International Corporation and is responsible for maintaining and repairing commercial diving gear, and keeping proficient with commercial diving skills. On this cruise, he will provide shipboard operation support, including operation and maintenance of deck equipment and handling systems, engine-room and deck department watch standing, fire fighting and damage control, and small boat maintenance and repair.
Robert Wilson
Laser Line Scan System Operator
Scientific Applications International Corporation
