Research Interests

My research is in the area of acoustical oceanography, that is, the study of the physics and biology of the ocean, and their interactions, through the use and development of acoustic techniques. The specific areas of research that I am involved in include 1) acoustic scattering by marine organisms, such as zooplankton, micronekton, fish, and squid, 2) acoustic scattering from physical process that occur in the ocean interior, such as oceanic microstructure, turbulence, shear instability, double-diffusion, and internal waves, 3) acoustic propagation in highly turbulent environments with dense bubble clouds, the impact of these physical processes on the propagation of mid- and high-frequency sound in shallow coastal environments, and implications to acoustic communications, and 4) acoustic scattering from sea ice and oil under, or encapsulated in, sea ice. To date, my research has been focused in coastal regions (shore ward of the continental shelf break) in water depths of less than 200 meters (e.g. the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, New Jersey Continental Shelf), as the natural abundance of zooplankton is high and turbulent dissipation rates and stratification tend to be high, resulting in strong acoustic signals.

My research approach encompasses the theoretical development of analytical physics-based models to understand the scattering and propagation of high-frequency sound in the ocean, laboratory experiments to verify acoustic models in a controlled environment, in situfield experiments that make use of the models and allow the physics and/or biology of the ocean interior to be explored and better understood, and the development of instrumentation  to improve our ability to remotely investigate the biology and physics of the ocean interior and boundaries.