NOAA hydro officers honored

Each year, the NOAA Association of Commissioned Officers recognizes NOAA Corps officers for their extraordinary accomplishments and contributions. This year, three of the four awards went to officers supporting Coast Survey’s hydrographic program. Congratulations to the officers honored with Junior Officer of the Year, Engineering, and Science awards. Coast Survey applauds your accomplishments!

Megan Guberski
Lt. Megan Guberski, NOAA

Lieutenant Megan Guberski was awarded the “Junior Officer of the Year” award for her outstanding performance as operations officer on the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. Lt. Guberski successfully submitted 13 hydrographic projects, ensuring mariners received critical safety of navigation data in a timely manner. Undeterred by challenges outside of her control, she developed a creative staffing and logistics plan to ensure Thomas Jefferson continued its primary data acquisition mission with survey launches even when the ship lost days at sea. This added over 390 acquisition hours, which would have otherwise gone unrealized. Lt. Guberski also made certain that data processing and survey delivery was not delayed due to server shutdown during drydock, by managing the move of the data servers, survey department, and part of the wardroom into Coast Survey’s Atlantic Hydrographic Branch to continue hydrographic data processing. Finally, Lt. Guberski seamlessly stepped into the role of acting executive officer with less than 24 hours notice, managing all aspects of the ship budget, personnel, and logistics in addition to her primary duties.
Lt. Cmdr. Briana Welton
Lt. Cmdr. Briana Welton

Lieutenant Commander Briana Welton was awarded the “Science Award” for her thesis work “A Field Method for Backscatter Calibration Applied to NOAA’s Reson 7125 Multibeam Echo-Sounder.” Seafloor acoustic backscatter is a valuable measurement for characterizing the marine environment and has been used in such diverse fields as geology, habitat mapping, and marine construction. Lt. Cmdr. Welton’s contribution to this field allows a more seamless integration of multi-sensor data sets and improves the utility of the environmental mapping data acquired by NOAA’s fleet.
Lt.j.g. Eric Younkin, NOAA
Lt.j.g. Eric Younkin, NOAA

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Eric Younkin was awarded an “Engineering Award” for his innovative and comprehensive analysis, design, and implementation of shipboard data management infrastructure, including remote processing, data archival, and network optimization. This resulted in government cost savings of over $400K while improving performance and maintaining data integrity.
Job well done!

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