Larry Mayer
Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center
Jere A. Chase Ocean Engineering Lab
24 Colovos Road
Durham, New Hampshire 03824
Larry Mayer has a broad-based background in marine geology and geophysics that is reflected in his association with both the Ocean Engineering and Earth Science Departments.
He graduated magna cum laude with an Honors degree in Geology from the University of Rhode Island in 1973 and received a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Marine Geophysics in 1979. At Scripps his schizophrenic future was determined as he worked with the Marine Physical Laboratory's Deep-Tow Geophysical package, but applied this sophisticated acoustic sensor to problems of the history of ocean climate. After being selected as an astronaut candidate finalist for NASA's first class of mission specialists, he went on to a Post-Doc at the School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island where he worked on problems of deep-sea sediment transport and paleoceanography of the equatorial Pacific.
In 1982, he became an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Oceanography at Dalhousie University and, in 1991, moved to the University of New Brunswick to take up the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Ocean Mapping.
In 2000, he became the founding director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire and the co-director of the NOAA/UNH Joint Hydrographic Center. Dr. Mayer has participated in more than 90 cruises (over 70 months at sea!) during the last 40 years and has been chief or co-chief scientist of numerous expeditions including two legs of the Ocean Drilling Program and seven cruises on the USCG Icebreaker Healy mapping unexplored regions of the Arctic seafloor in support of a potential U.S. submission for an extended continental shelf under the Law of the Sea Treaty.
Dr. Mayer has served on, or chaired, far too many international panels and committees and has the requisite large number of publications on a variety of topics in marine geology and geophysics. He is the recipient of the Keen Medal for Marine Geology, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm, the University of New Hampshire's Excellence in Research Award and the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography's Distinguished Alumni Award. He served on the President's Panel for Ocean Exploration, and chaired a National Academy of Sciences committee on "National Needs for Coastal Mapping and Charting." He is currently co-chairing NOAA's Ocean Exploration Advisory Working Group and chairing the National Academy of Sciences committee on the "Impacts of Deepwater Horizon on the Ecosystem Services of the Gulf of Mexico."
His research deals with sonar imaging, remote characterization of the seafloor, advanced applications of 3-and 4-D visualization to ocean mapping problems and of late, applications of seafloor mapping to Law of the Sea issues.
