Michael S. Twardowski, Ph.D.
——— President
Dr. Michael Twardowski is a Research Professor and Associate Director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.
Mike also leads the Maritime Sensing Program of the I-SENSE pillar and holds an Affiliate Professor position in Ocean Engineering at Florida Atlantic University.
Before joining HBOI in 2015 he was Director of Research at WET Labs, Inc., where he led development of optical sensors and application of technology to problems in ocean optics.
Mike has over 100 peer-reviewed publications on a wide range of topics including remote sensing of optical and biogeochemical properties, ocean color validation, inversion of optical properties to characterize ocean particles and dissolved materials, holographic imaging microscopy, biological camouflage, autonomous monitoring, technology development and protocols for optical sensors.
Mike is on the science team for the NASA PACE mission, where he is working on updating concepts for ocean color algorithms and improving accuracy for optical property measurements.
His other research activities are currently focused on active sensing with lidar, particle field dynamics, harmful algal blooms, exploring the mesopelagic ocean, and developing new technology.
Mike received his PhD in Oceanography from the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island in 1998.
Mike can be reached at mtwardo.alt@gmail.com
Alberto Tonizzo, Ph.D.
——— Scientist
Dr. Alberto Tonizzo has a background and interests in experimental and computational radiative transfer in oceanic waters.
His research as consultant at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute concentrates on development and validation of ocean color algorithms, monitoring of bioluminescence, shallow water remote sensing, and Monte Carlo ray tracing.
He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from City College of New York in 2010 and was a research assistant at CCNY in the Optical Remote Sensing Lab. As a graduate student and then as a post-doc, he designed and developed underwater polarimetric sensors and participated in several oceanographic cruises, in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
Alberto is also the Chief of Technology and Special Operations at Green Top Farms, a NYC-based urban farm and farm-to-table food-tech company.
Christopher M. Strait, M.S.
——— Scientist
Mr. Christopher Strait has been interested in the application and design of underwater optical instrumentation for over a decade. He started his scientific career at UFI (Upstate Freshwater Institute), a small upstate New York research organization, conducting optical and water quality measurements in inland waters including the Great Lakes.
He currently works as a research technician at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, where his interest centers around development of LiDAR systems through modeling of the effect of instrumentation geometry on inversion of inherent optical properties.
Chris received his B.S. from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2015 and is currently working on his M.S. in Oceanography at Florida Atlantic University.