ROV Pilot

DJ works for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) where he has been a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Pilot for 6 years. This is always an interesting, challenging and adventurous job that allows him to combine his love of things technical, supporting science, and the ocean. He is excited to bring his ocean robotics, engineering savvy, and extreme environment application experience to the SCINI Project.

Initially involved with the early proposal writing phase of this project with Dr. Kim, this year he is actually returning to the Antarctic to help with the operation, deployment and testing of SCINI. DJ has approximately 18 previous months ‘On Ice’ where he provided both marine and terrestrial science support for the Antarctic Research program in McMurdo, Dry Valleys, South Pole, and aboard the Research Vessel Ice Breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer. DJ graduated from VA Tech with an MS in Mechanical Engineering and has worked for NASA and Lockheed Martin Astronautics.

A love of how things work, building things and taking broken things apart and then making them work again made engineering and the practical application to science a natural path of choice for DJ. In his spare time DJ enjoys his two dogs, mountain and road biking, endurance racing, snowboarding, surfing, climbing, backpacking and traveling.

Learn more about ROV Piloting in the Monterey Bay

http://www.mbari.org/dmo/vessels_vehicles/ventana/ventana.html