Thunder Bay Sinkholes 2008 Explorers
Mark BaskaranAssociate Professor of Geology
Wayne State University
Bopi Biddanda
Research Scientist
Annis Water Resources Institute
Dr. Bopi Biddanda 
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.
Susan 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.
Nathan 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.
Thomas Johengen
Research Scientist
University of Michigan
Tom Johengen 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.
Scott 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.
Val 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.
Emily 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.
Steve Nold
University of Wisconsin – Stout
As a microbial ecologist, Steve Nold 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.
Steve 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.
