Federal CMTS partnership briefed to Rear Adm. Gallaudet
On December 20, Rear Adm. Shep Smith, Coast Survey director, Capt. Liz Kretovic, Coast Survey deputy hydrographer, Heather Gilbert, NOAA/Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) advisor, and Glenn Boldevich and Jim Rice, NOS PCAD, along with Helen Brohl, executive director of the CMTS met with Rear Adm. Gallaudet, assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, to discuss NOAA and the federal CMTS partnership. Rear Adm. Gallaudet met the team that will support him in his new role as the NOAA representative, supported by RDML Smith, to the CMTS sub-Cabinet Coordinating Board, consisting of agency heads and key office directors. Helen Brohl provided an overview and important connections between the CMTS and NOAA. In this role and in the relationship NOS has with the CMTS, Rear Adm. Gallaudet will be an advocate for OCS priorities going forward. For more information, contact
Heather.Gilbert@noaa.gov.
Staff Updates
Kurt Nelson, Chief of CSDL’s Geospatial Applications and Development Branch, retired on December 29th from federal service. His extensive career included time as an officer in the US Air Force, as a hydrographer with the US Naval Oceanographic Office, as well as NOAA Coast Survey. We wish Kurt the best.
Rachel Medley returned from maternity leave and resumed her duties as the Navigation Services Division's Customer Affairs Branch chief, as of Jan 02, 2018.
Phil Richardson receives his 30 year certificate from Capt.
E.J. Van Den Ameele.
Phil Richardson received recognition for his 30 years of federal service. Phil works in the Coastal Marine Modeling Branch of the Coast Survey Development Laboratory. He originally joined NOAA with the Estuarine Ocean Physics Branch, under the leadership of Hank Frey. In his early years, Phil did a lot of work with historical data, spectral analysis of ocean time series data, harmonic analysis of tides, and tidal prediction. In more recent years, he has been helping with the setup, analysis, and validation of coastal ocean models. He has worked closely with CSDL scientists such as Zizang Yang, Dick Schmalz, Bill O'Connor, and Eddie Shi to test, validate, develop, and implement oceanographic data and model products. He coauthored (as either lead or second author) over 20 NOAA technical reports and peer reviewed professional journal papers. Congratulations, Phil, on your 30 years of service!
Congratulations to the following hydrography ensigns assigned to the hydrographic fleet who successfully completed and graduated from Basic Officer Training Class 130 on November 21, 2017, and will be reporting to their respective ships.
ENS Nicholas Azzopardi, NOAA Ship
Rainier
Ensign Nicholas J. Azzopardi graduated from the University of Michigan in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in engineering with a focus in climate and meteorology. He has worked as an intern at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Here Ensign Azzopardi worked with systems engineers on the Joint Polar Satellite System flight team to develop tools to refine the process of analyzing microwave sounder data. Additionally, Ensign Azzopardi spent a summer at the South African National Space Agency where he completed a project analyzing ionospheric scintillation data across Africa.
ENS Taylor Krabiel, NOAA Ship
Thomas Jefferson
Ensign Krabiel graduated from University of Nevada, Reno as a dual major in geology and hydrogeology from the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering in December 2015. He received the top undergraduate hydrogeologist award for his graduating year. Prior to reporting to the NOAA Corps, Ensign Krabiel was a high school science advisor at Innovation High School in Reno, Nevada. While in college he spent three years in the Nevada Seismology Lab as a Seismic Analyst analyzing and reporting thousands of earthquakes throughout the state of Nevada.
ENS Airlie Pickett, NOAA Ship
Rainier
Ensign Airlie G. Pickett graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in May 2017, with a bachelor's degree in physical oceanography and a minor in mathematics. Ensign Pickett also holds certifications as an SDI/TDI Divemaster and the AAUS Advanced Scientific Diving Certification and has served as a volunteer scientific diver on multiple projects through various universities.
ENS Lyle Robbins, NOAA Ship
Rainier
Before joining the NOAA Corps, Ensign Lyle Robbins was a boat captain and educator with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Baltimore Harbor Environmental Education Program. In addition, he was an Associate Professor of Biology at Notre Dame Maryland University. Ensign Robbins graduated from the University of Maryland in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in economics and history, and completed his graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University Advanced Academic Programs with a master's degree in in environmental science and policy in 2017. He served in the Peace Corps as an economic development consultant and extended for a third year as a regional leader in Panama. Ensign Robbins holds a U.S. Coast Guard 50-Ton Inland Master’s License, is a Wilderness First Responder, and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
ENS Kevin Tennyson, NOAA Ship
Fairweather
Before joining the NOAA Corps, Ensign Kevin A. Tennyson was a graduate research assistant in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Ensign Tennyson graduated from Oregon State University in 2016 with a master's degree in the physics of oceans and atmospheres with a concentration in physical oceanography. He also earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2014. Ensign Tennyson’s other areas of expertise include being a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver and a NOLS WMI certified Wilderness First Responder, and holding an American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) level 1 certification.
ENS Jackson Vanfleet-Brown, NOAA Ship
Fairweather
Before joining the NOAA Corps, Ensign Jackson Vanfleet-Brown worked in the national wildlife refuge of Southeast Farallon Island. He supported long-term studies of breeding seabirds as an intern for Point Blue Conservation Science. ENS Vanfleet-Brown graduated Cum Laude from Carleton College in 2015 and was recognized with distinction in his major, geology. While building on his experience in scientific research and stewardship, his work experience, and family tradition, inspired him to pursue a career with NOAA. ENS Vanfleet-Brown utilized his graphic design and writing skills to create information graphics published by the UC Berkeley Essig Museum of Entomology, Stanislaus National Forest, the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and the Carleton College Voice.
