PEOPLE

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Staff

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Roy A. Armstrong, Ph.D.
Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Professor and Director, Bio-optical Oceanography Laboratory
Research Interests: Water optics and remote sensing
Email: roy.armstrong@upr.edu, royaarmstrong@yahoo.com

 

Yasmín Detrés, Ph.D.
Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Researcher, NOAA NCAS UPR Mayaguez
Research Interests: Saharan dust in the eastern Caribbean (microbiology, remote sensing), remote sensing of ocean color, UV radiation and marine ecosystems
Email: ydetres@gmail.com, ydetres@yahoo.com
                     

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Current Graduate Students

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Ali Amirrezvani
Department of Marine Sciences - Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Direct effects of storm (runoff) episodic events on La Parguera / Caribbean coral reefs, eutrophication, remote sensing, GIS, bio-optics.
Email: alisamirrezvani@gmail.com, ali.amirrezvani@upr.edu

Cynthia Ramos
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. student
Research Interests: .
Email: cynthia.ramos1@upr.edu

Graciela García-Moliner
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. candidate
Research Interests: The assessment of fish spawning aggregations from remotely sensed data. Assessment of deep water coral areas (> 30 m) for fishery purposes.
Email: graciela_cfmc@yahoo.com, ggmoliner@yahoo.com

Myrna J. Santiago
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. M.S. student
Research Interests: Tropical meteorology, remote sensing and optical characterization of aerosol particles and phytoplanckton biomass. Topic: Hurricane forcing of phytoplankton biomass in the Sargasso Sea
Email: myrna.santiago@upr.edu

William J. Hernández-López
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. student
Research Interests: GIS and remote sensing of coastal and marine ecosystems, mesophotic reefs modeling using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), webmaster Bio-optical Oceanography webpage.
Email: williamhernan@gmail.com, william.hernandez@upr.edu

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Recent Graduates (Alumni)

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Carmen Zayas-Santiago
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. M.S. (2011)
Research Interests: GIS and remote sensing in marine ecology
Email: c_castula@hotmail.com
M.S. Thesis: Landscape structure in two reefs in La Parguera and its effects on Lytechinus variegatus

Aurora Justiniano
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. (2010)
Research Interests: Influence of Saharan Aerosol Layer (SAL) on phytoplankton biomass in the western Atlantic Ocean, remote sensing, bio-optics.
Email: aurorajust@gmail.com
Ph.D. Thesis: Influence of Saharan Aerosols on Phytoplankton Biomass in the Tropical North Atlantic Ocean

Sara Rivero
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. M.S. (2009)
Research Interests: Coral reef ecology, sponge ecology and taxonomy
Email: sara.rivero@upr.edu
M.S. Thesis: Ecological Aspects of Sponges in Mesophotic Coral Reef Systems.

Deborah Cedeño
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. (2008)
Research Interests: Phytoplankton taxonomy, optical characterization of harmful algal blooms, bio-optical oceanography
Email: debbiecedeno@yahoo.com
Ph.D. Thesis: Spectral Properties And Population Dynamics Of The Harmful Dinoflagellate Cochlodinium Polykrikoides (Margalef) In Southwestern Puerto Rico.

Marcos Rosado
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. Ph.D. (2008)
Research Interests: bio-optics, ocean color algorithms, marine ecology
Email: marcos.rosado@upr.edu
Ph.D. Thesis: Evaluation And Development Of Bio-Optical Algorithms For Chlorophyll Retrieval In Western Puerto Rico.

María Vega-Rodríguez
Department of Marine Sciences-Biological Oceanography. M.S. (2008)
Research Interests: Tropical marine ecosystems (e.g. mangrove and coral ecology), remote sensing, global climate change.
Email: vegamary2001@yahoo.com
M.S. Thesis: Estimating Primary Productivity Of Red Mangroves In Southwestern Puerto Rico From Remote Sensing And Field Measurements. 

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Researchers /Collaborators

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Fernando Gilbes-Santaella, Ph.D.
Department of Geology. University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez
Associate Professor and Director of COHEMIS
Research Interest: Environmental remote sensing and bio-optical properties
Email: fernando.gilbes@upr.edu
Websites:         

Miguel Velez, Ph.D.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez
Professor and Director of CenSSIS
Research Interests: Modeling, simulation and control of dynamic systems, and imaging spectrometry
                     Email: m.velez@ieee.org
                     Websites:        


Hanumant Singh, Ph.D.
Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Associate Scientist
Research Interests: Computer vision; system architecture and algorithms for acoustic and optical imaging; underwater vehicle system architecture for navigation, communications, docking, and power.
Email: hsingh@whoi.edu
                      Website:

Vernon Morris, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry. Howard University
Associate Professor and Director, NOAA Centert for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS)
Email: vmorris@howard.edu
Website:

Liane Guild, Ph.D.
Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center
Research Scientist
Research Interest: Tropical coral reef ecosystems, airborne hyperspectral data, NASA AVIRIS missions (2004, 2005) in Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Email: liane.s.guild@nasa.gov
Website: