GLRC Department

Administration

  • Director, Great Lakes Research Center
  • Director, Institute of Computing and Cybersystems
  • William and Gloria Jackson Professor

Links of Interest

Areas of Interest

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning
  • Signal and Image Processing
  • Sensor and Data Fusion
  • Heterogeneous Data Mining
Elizabeth Hoy

Elizabeth Hoy

  • Director, Business & Program Development
  • Great Lakes Research Center

Specialties

  • Pre-award Proposal Development and Budgeting Support
  • Post Award Project Administration
  • Institute and Department Budget Administration
  • Institute and Department Reporting
  • Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships
Jackie Gebhardt, PMP
"Start from a place of "we"; practice proactive sharing; foster personal awareness; be the educator, be the learner; live the agreements"
—Five Agreements of Organizational Sensitivity

Jackie Gebhardt, PMP

  • Institute Manager, Great Lakes Research Center

Roles and Areas of Responsibility

  • Pre-Award Proposal Development and Budgeting Support
  • Post Award Project Management
  • Implementation of Institute Initiatives
  • Website Development
Rachel Rulison

Rachel Rulison

  • Department Coordinator, Great Lakes Research Center

Roles and Areas of Responsibility

  • Department Payroll and Timesheets 
  • Financial Transactions
  • Website Maintenance
  • Purchase Requisitions and Invoices
  • Department/Shared Facilities Data/Reports
  • GLRC Events
Katie Gray

Katie Gray

  • Logistics Coordinator, Great Lakes Research Center

Roles and Areas of Responsibility

  • Safety Liaison
  • Pre-award Proposal Development Support
  • Facility Space Coordination
  • Event Planning and Management

Research Scientists

  • Associate Research Scientist, Great Lakes Research Center
  • Instructor, Cognitive and Learning Sciences
  • Director of Research and Evaluation, Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform

Areas of Expertise 

  • Design and implementation of professional development for K-12 and undergraduate STEM teachers
  • K-12 STEM education research 
  • Program evaluation 

Amanda's CV

Research Interests

  • Instructional practices that support environmental literacy and stewardship
  • Integration of computing into STEM education
  • Teachers beliefs about reforms-based science instruction including nature of science, inquiry, engineering, Next Generation Science Standards, and technology integration
  • Professional development elements (remote and face-to-face) that support instructional change, teacher leadership and reforms-based science instruction
  • Using levels of inquiry to support teachers' understanding and integration of mathematical and scientific inquiry in k-12 education
  • Teachers' understandings regarding key concepts in science including respiration and photosynthesis
  • Assistant Research Scientist, Great Lakes Research Center

Area of Expertise

  • Hydrodynamic modeling
  • Regional climate modeling
  • Physical limnology
  • Nearshore processing

Research Interests

  • Great Lakes cross-scale hydrodynamics
  • Integrated Earth modeling system
  • Long-term climate change and projection over the Great Lakes
  • Short-term hydrodynamic forecasting in the Great Lakes
  • Interactions between atmospheric and lake processing
  • Director, Marine Engineering Laboratory
  • Robbins Professor of Sustainable Marine Engineering
  • Research Professor, ME-EM, and Adjunct Professor, GMES

Research Interests

  • Large scale field experimentation in the Inland Seas of the Great Lakes and coastal oceans
  • Nearshore hydrodynamics and prediction
  • Autonomous and semi-autonomous environmental monitoring platforms (surface and sub-surface)
  • Underwater acoustic remote sensing
  • Marine engineering
  • Geosciences Research Scientist, Great Lakes Research Center

Areas of Interest

  • Geosciences Education
  • Geoconservation
  • Geoheritage
  • National Marine Sanctuary
  • Great Lakes Indigenous Knowledge
  • University-Indigenous Community Partnerships
  • Associate Research Scientist

Research Interests

  • Enhance our understanding of processes driving landscape and environmental change in complex environments and habitats.
  • Improve our ability to efficiently and accurately map complex environments and habitats with emerging technologies (AUVs, ROVs, remotely sensed data).
  • Predict coastal change (and environmental change more broadly) by integrating geography, geology, geophysics, machine learning, and other disciplines.
  • Engage communities via citizen-science opportunities to better understand community-driven research needs and help apply active research to address real-world challenges.
Christopher Wojick

Christopher Wojick

  • Senior Researcher, Program Evaluation
  • Great Lakes Research Center

Research Staff

  • Assistant Director, Marine Operations
  • Manager, Marine Research Assets Shared Facility

Specialties

  • Oversee research buoys
  • Maintain and repair Remote Operated Vehicles
  • Maintain R/V Agassiz to USCG standards
  • Maintain and operate survey vessels
  • Provide electrical and mechanical support of specialized research equipment
  • Expanded Biography
  • Research Engineer

Specialties

  • Underwater acoustic remote sensing
  • Design, fabrication, testing & utilization of prototype field deployable instruments 
  • Application and deployment of advanced technologies and integrated observing systems
  • Quality assurance and control of in-situ data 
  • Provide strategic scientific and engineering support to partners
  • Scientific scuba diving

Research Interests

  • Surface and underwater autonomous or remotely operated research platforms
  • Acoustic signal processing
  • Optical engineering
  • Marine engineering
  • Business water risk
Justin Cygan

Justin Cygan

  • Relief Captain, Great Lakes Research Center
  • Research Engineer

Research Interests

  • Applied mathematics 
  • Computer vision
  • Machine learning
  • Benthic substrate mapping
  • AUV data analysis
  • Research Engineer
  • Relief Captain

Areas of Expertise

  • Limnology and physical oceanography
  • Application, fabrication, and deployment of advanced technology and integrated observing systems
  • Surface and underwater autonomous or remotely operated research platforms
  • Meteorological and biogeochemical sensor instrumentation
  • Quality assurance and control of in-situ data 
  • USCG 100 GRT Master Captain

Research Interests

  • Establishment of long-term climate observations
  • Great Lakes acidification
  • Ship based flow-through systems
  • Nutrient cycling and subsequent productivity
  • Advanced technologies for increasing public safety
  • Data science and tool building
Erik Kocher

Erik Kocher

  • Research Engineer - Electrical Engineer
  • Research Engineer

Areas of Interest

  • Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning
  • Image Processing
  • Data Science and Analytics
  • Electrical & Computer Engineer, Great Lakes Research Center

Specialties

  • Support GLRC research programs
  • Focus on measurements of the over water and in-water environments
  • Support design, fabrication, testing & utilization of prototype field deployable instruments, including programming and decision support algorithms
  • Statistical analysis of remote sensing and in situ data sets
  • Expanded Biography
  • Research Engineer, Great Lakes Research Center

Specialties

  • Program Management
  • Proposal Development
  • Technology Commercialization

Research Interests

  • Acoustics and Vibrations
    • Thermoacoustics
    • Carbon Nanotube Speaker Design and Fabrication
    • Underwater Acoustics
    • Active Noise Control
  • Image and Signal Processing
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Research Engineer, Great Lakes Research Center
  • Relief Captain, Great Lakes Research Center

Specialties 

  • Responsible for administration of the Marine Autonomy Research Site and Smart Ships Coalition and coordination with the Marine Research Assets Shared Use Facility (MRAF) in support of client needs.
  • Provide scientific and engineering support to faculty, staff, partners, and sponsors with expertise in design, manufacturing, and integration of marine systems. Support budget and proposal development, project management, and strategic planning.
  • Over 10 years' experience as a licensed captain on the Great Lakes with expertise in navigation systems, marine electronics, mechanical systems, and maintenance, repair, and operations.
  • Expanded Biography.
Bruce Woodry

Bruce Woodry

  • Relief Captain, Great Lakes Research Center

Geospatial Research Center

  • Assistant Director, Geospatial Research Facility

Areas of Expertise

  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Database Development
  • GIS Tool and Process Development
  • Integrating Web, GIS, Database and Analytics Tools
  • Senior Geospatial Research Scientist
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Social Sciences

Education

  • PhD, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, Michigan Technological University
  • MS, Industrial Archaeology, Michigan Technological University
  • BS, Anthropology and History, Cleveland State University
  •  

Research Interests

  • Industrial and Urban Archaeology
  • Historical GIS
  • Deindustrialization
  • Industrial Landscapes
  • The Archaeology of Brownfields
  • Spatial Analysis of Historical Industrial Pollutants
  • Big Data Approaches to Archaeology
  • Publicly-engaged Scholarship
  • Geospatial Research Scientist

Areas of Expertise

  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Geostatistical Analysis
  • Lake Superior Geology, Coastal Geomorphology, and Geoheritage
  • GPS, GIS Data Collector Applications, and Mapping Technologies
  • Web-based GIS Data Dissemination and Applications
  • Interdisciplinary GIS Project Management
  • GIS Data Librarian

Areas of Expertise

  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  • Geospatial Metadata
  • Cartography
  • Web-based GIS application development
  • Geospatial data management, discovery, and dissemination

Mi-STAR

Marianne Semones

Marianne Semones

  • Senior Research Scientist
  • Mi-STAR Program Director
Stephanie Tubman

Stephanie Tubman

  • Mi-STAR Senior Research Scientist

Research Interests

  • Teacher leadership development
  • Science teacher beliefs, attitudes, and practices around effective science instruction
  • Decision-making and power sharing in instructional and organizational settings

Specialties

  • Design of curriculum for Next Generation Science Standards in the middle (6-8) and high school (9-12) gradebands
  • Design and evaluation of inquiry-based curriculum for grades 6-12
  • Environmental and place-based education
  • Integration of Next Generation Science Standards into place-based educational frameworks
  • Design and implementation of professional learning for STEM educators
  • Coaching and facilitation of teacher leaders
  • Earth science, water resource, and natural hazards education
  • Project Management
Gregg Bluth

Gregg Bluth

  • Mi-STAR Senior Research Scientist: Assessment and Curriculum
  • Adjunct Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering

Links of Interest

  • Science Education
  • Science Assessment Development
Chris Geerer

Chris Geerer

  • Mi-STAR Professional Learning Coordinator
  • Associate Research Scientist

Specialties

  • K-12 Educational Leadership
  • K-12 Professional Development
  • K-12 Science Education
Lindsey Watch

Lindsey M Watch

  • Mi-STAR Research Scientist

Research Interests

  • STEM/CS/CT K-12 curricular integration
  • STEM educator professional development

Specialties

  • K-12 NGSS curricular design
  • Professional development for STEM educators
  • Place-based environmental education

Postdoctoral Scholars

  • Postdoctoral Scholar

Research Interests

  • Great Lakes hydrodynamic modeling and data assimilation
  • Coastal disaster prevention and mitigation
  • Waves and currents interaction with vegetation
  • Sediment transport in vegetated regions

Visiting Scholars

  • Visiting Scholar

Research Area

Utilizing machine learning techniques for the Great Lakes system, particularly for the projections of water levels,  waves, and coastal flooding regions