School of Ocean Science and Engineering
School of Ocean Science and Engineering
Meet some of our students and faculty who share their journey, expertise, and research
as members of the School of Ocean Science and Engineering at USM.
Coastal Science
Paul McDonald's current research is examining eastern oysters from the northern Gulf of Mexico for tolerance to high thermal and low salinity conditions.
Ocean Engineering
Undergraduate Marthonette Aguilar shares why she chose Ocean Engineering as her major, after attending USM’s Hydrography Day during her Junior year in high school.
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Coastal Science From Seagrass Systems to Turtle Sightings Surveys in Roatán, HondurasChristian Hayes, Ph.D. student, has conducted meaningful and practical research in the marine environment, which has prepared him for a future career in academia.
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Coastal Science
As a graduate student in Coastal Sciences, Alfonso Cohuo, discovered his passion through his work in an ecology lab.
Marine Science
As a staff research scientist with the ocean modeling group, Brandy Armstrong is working to develop a Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Wave Sediment Transport (COAWST) model of the Mississippi Sound and Bite.
Marine Science
After first year of graduate school, Lea Locke-Wynn lands a job at the Naval Oceanographic Office.
Ocean Engineering
After starting off as a Marine Biology major, Steven Ates discovers his career path when he changes to the new program in Ocean Engineering.
Hydrographic Science
Dr. Dr. Leonardo Macelloni's research deals with all the aspects of deep ocean exploration and imaging of the seabed and the sub-seabed. Projects span from the search of the first WWII in the Gulf of Mexico the freighter Norlindo (funded by NOAA OE), to deploy seabed landers to assess the damage of the oil spill in fragile deep sea benthic communities (funded by NRDA).
Ocean Engineering
Dr. Gero Nootz’s research, which is carried out within the Ocean Exploration Lab (OEL), revolves around expanding the capabilities of a new generation of small autonomous platforms, be it Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) or Autonomous Surface vehicles (ASVs).
Ocean Engineering
Mahdi Razaz's research focuses on developing and deploying new classes of acoustic and optical sensors to perform measurements where currently available instrumentation is not adequate.
As a new faculty member, Dr. Kim de Mutsert, will use her research expertise in coastal
and estuarine fish ecology and ecosystem modeling to mentor graduate students.
READ ABOUT DR. MUTSERT'S RESEARCH
Dr. Kristina Mojica was recently involved in a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission focused resolving key processes controlling ocean system function, their influences on atmospheric aerosols and clouds and their implications for climate.
Marine Science
As an invertebrate ecologist and zoologist, Dr. Joris L. van der Ham, brings a diverse academic background to USM. He'll be able to provide his students with a well-rounded educational experience due to his diverse background in oceanography, marine ecology, and science policy, and more!