Thunder Bay Sinkholes 2008 Explorers

 

Mark Baskaran Mark Baskaran
Associate Professor of Geology
Wayne State University 

Mark Baskaran's Lab exit icon   


biddandaBopi Biddanda
Research Scientist
Annis Water Resources Institute

Dr. Bopi Biddanda exit icon External Link is an aquatic microbial ecologist interested in the carbon biogeochemistry of natural waters. He has a background in marine biology, oceanography, and microbial ecology, and he likes to address questions of carbon-flow driven by microorganisms in nature. He received his early education in India, including a master's degree in marine biology. Following doctoral work in marine microbial ecology at the University of Georgia in the U.S., he worked at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, University of Texas Marine Science Institute, and the University of Minnesota, before joining the Annis Water Resources Institute as a research scientist to explore the Great Lakes.


gottfriedSusan Gottfried
Data Manager
NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center

Susan Gottfried is an employee of General Dynamics Information Technology and is contracted to the NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center at Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. Since May 2004, she has worked with NOAA's Ocean Exploration (OE) program as a participant in an Integrated Product Team dedicated to providing end-to-end data management services and support for OE-sponsored expeditions. Gottfried will be the OE data manager during the Thunder Bay Sinkholes expedition, and she will be documenting the dive operations, events, and data collection activities at sea in an application called the Cruise Information Management System (CIMS). CIMS is under development for OE and is being designed to generate Federal Geographic Data Committee-compliant metadata for any data sets, multimedia, samples, and products produced by the expedition. These metadata will be available at such time the data are available for archival procedures at the NOAA National Data Centers. Expedition data are also used in customized products, such as a Digital Atlas, for data discovery and access.


hawleyNathan Hawley
Oceanographer
NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

Nathan Hawley has studied the erosion and transport of sediment in the Great Lakes for over 20 years. He uses instrumented moorings to make time-series measurements of waves, currents, water temperature, and water turbidity. In addition to sediment transport, his research interests include the dynamics of internal and surface waves, the formation and maintenance of turbid layers in the lakes, and the dynamics of sediment traps.


johengenThomas Johengen
Research Scientist
University of Michigan

Tom Johengen External Link has been a research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research (CILER) at the University of Michigan since 1991. Dr. Johengen completed his PhD in oceanic science at the University of Michigan. His research interests include nutrient biogeochemistry both within the watershed as well as in aquatic ecosystems and lower food-web dynamics. Since 2006, he has served as the chief scientist for the Alliance for Coastal Technologies, a NOAA-sponsored research consortium dedicated to the development and testing of in situ observing systems.


kendallScott Kendall
Researcher
Annis Water Resources Institute
Grand Valley State University

Scott Kendall is a researcher with Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Annis Water Resources Institute and has worked on the Lake Huron sinkhole projects since 2003. He has an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry from Central Michigan University and a master's degree in plant pathology from the University of Georgia. He was a research microbiologist at Emory University, and then worked as an scientist at an environmental consulting firm. In addition to working at GVSU, he teaches various biology courses at local colleges.


klumpVal Klump
Director
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Great Lakes WATER Institute

Dr. Val Klump is the director and a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Great Lakes WATER Institute. His research on how nutrients and carbon are cycled in lakes has taken him from the deepest sounding in Lake Superior aboard a research submersible, to the largest and oldest lake in the world — Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. Dr. Klump has participated in research cruises as both scientist and chief scientist, representing over 500 days at sea. He holds a degree in law from Georgetown University and a doctorate in chemical oceanography from the University of North Carolina.


mcdonaldEmily McDonald
Web Coordinator
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

Emily McDonald is a current Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. She received her BS in marine science from the University of South Carolina (USC) in 2006 and recently completed her MS in environmental health sciences from the USC's Arnold School of Public Health. As an undergraduate and graduate student, McDonald worked in the Geographic Information Processing Lab, part of USC's Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, focusing on coastal zone management, ocean observation systems, and geographic information system analysis.


noldSteve Nold
University of Wisconsin – Stout

As a microbial ecologist, Steve Nold exit icon External Link brings his expertise to this project by studying the bacteria and archaea in Lake Huron's sinkholes. He is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin – Stout, and relishes in life forms that smell, are slimy, or make you really ill. He enjoys sailing and studying early 19th century maritime literature. 


rubergSteve Ruberg
Principle Investigator
NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab

Steve Ruberg is the principle investigator for marine observing system research and development at NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab. His current research projects include the exploration and mapping of Great Lakes sinkholes using time-series instrumentation and remotely operated vehicles, the development of the real-time coastal observation network (ReCON), and the development of integrated circuit-based microsensors capable of measuring multiple chemical parameters.