Dr. Larry Mayer, Director of the School of Marine Science and Engineering at the University of New Hampshire
Dr. Larry Mayer is a professor and first Director of the newly established School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. He is also the Director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and the co-director of the NOAA/UNH Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire.
He received a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Marine Geophysics in 1979. After being selected as an astronaut candidate finalist for NASAs first class of mission specialists, Larry went on to a Post-Doc at the School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island where he worked on the early development of the Chirp Sonar and problems of deep-sea sediment transport and paleoceanography. In 2000 , Larry became the founding director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire and the co-director of the NOAA/UNH Joint Hydrographic Center. Larry has participated in more than 90 cruises (over 75 months at sea!) during the last 35 years, and has been chief or co-chief scientist of numerous expeditions including two legs of the Ocean Drilling Program and ten mapping expeditions in the ice covered regions of the high Arctic.
He is the recipient of the Keen Medal for Marine Geology, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm and the State Department's Superior Honor Award. He was a member of the President's Panel on Ocean Exploration, National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee for the Geosciences, and chaired two National Academy of Science Committees, one on national needs for coastal mapping and charting and one on the impact of the Deepwater Horizon Spill on ecosystem services in the Gulf of Mexico.
Larry is currently Chair of the National Academies of Science Ocean Studies Board and was recently appointed by President Obama to the Arctic Research Commission. Larrys present research deals with sonar imaging and remote characterization of the seafloor as well as advanced applications of 3-D visualization to ocean mapping problems and applications of mapping to Law of the Sea issues, particularly in the Arctic.
Larrys featured presentation will be delivered on November 30th and is titled, "Arctic Research: A Practitioners Perspective"
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