The William M. Keck Professor of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, Robert Dunbar is also the Victoria P. and Roger W. Sant Director of the Earth Systems Program, the largest undergraduate and co-terminal masters program in the School of Earth Sciences. He was the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources and the 2009 recipient of the Richard W. Lyman Award. Professor Dunbar is also the first J. Frederick and Elisabeth B. Weintz University Fellow in Undergraduate Education and a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Consortium for Ocean Leadership.

Professor Dunbar's research interests link climate dynamics, marine science, and environmental policy and solutions. His research group works on topics related to global environmental change, with a focus on the hydrological cycle, air-sea interactions, tropical ecosystems, and polar biogeochemistry and glacial history. His group also specializes in studies of climate change during the past 50 to 12,000 years. He received his B.S. in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.

Jeffrey D. Paduan received his B.S.E. from the University of Michigan in 1982 and his Ph.D. in physical oceanography from Oregon State University in December, 1987. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Oceanography Society, and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He has served on the AMS committee for Meteorology and Oceanography of the Coastal Zone, on the steering committee for the Ocean. US community workshop on ocean observing systems, and as chair of the Ocean. US steering committee for the national Surface Current Mapping Initiative.

At present he is the chairman of the Department of Oceanography, President of the Monterey Bay Crescent Ocean Research Consortium, a member of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary's Integrated Monitoring Network science steering committee, and a member of the Science Advisory Team for California's Ocean Protection Council. His background involves study of upper ocean currents and air-sea interaction. In 1991, he joined the faculty of the Department of Oceanography at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) where his research has focused on the application of high frequency (HF) radar systems in coastal oceanography. In 1997, he co-edited a special issue of the Oceanography Society's journal (Oceanography, vol. 10, #2) devoted to this topic and, in March 1999, he overviewed this research area as the keynote speaker for the IEEE 6th Working Conference on Current Measurement Technology.

In 2001 he co-founded the International Radiowave Oceanography Workshop (ROW), which continues to be an important focal point for this growing branch of marine science. Prior to moving to NPS, Dr. Paduan was a research scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. There his research focused on larger-scale current structures as measured by satellite-tracked surface drifters. In recent years, Dr. Paduan has been principal investigator for a series of projects around Monterey Bay that have brought together observations, modeling, and data assimilation of circulation and ecosystem responses. He also designed and conducted a series of environmental assessments to characterize the thermal plumes produced by the Moss Landing and Morro Bay power plants. Dr. Paduan is the co-author of 45 publications and numerous technical reports related to the physics of the upper ocean.

Dr. Paduan is pleased to lend his remote sensing expertise to The Clean Oceans Project as they work to locate marine plastic debris patches in the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone.

Leif Thomas received a B.S. in Physics from the University of California Santa Barbara and a Ph. D. in Physical Oceanography from the University of Washington. In 2005 he joined the scientific staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and in 2008 he became Assistant Professor at Stanford University where he teaches courses on the ocean circulation and geophysical fluid dynamics in the School of Earth Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests focus on the dynamics of highly energetic, time-variable flows such as ocean fronts, vortices, and eddies. Such flows efficiently exchange heat, salt, nutrients, and dissolved gases between the surface of the ocean and the ocean interior and hence play an important role in the Earth's climate and the oceanic sequestration of carbon. In his research, he combines theory, computer modeling, and field observations to characterize the fundamental physics of the ocean circulation with the goal of improving the oceanic component of computer models used to predict future climate change.

Leif is pleased to share his extensive experience in remote sensing and current mapping with The Clean Oceans Project as they develop methods for safely and sustainably removing marine plastic debris from the Subtropical Convergence Zones of the world.

Dr. Swaminathan Ramesh is an entrepreneur and research scientist in Polymer and Organic Chemistries with more than 60 patents (US, International) and many peer-reviewed scientific papers. After obtaining his M.S. in Chemistry at the University of Madras and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science, Dr. Ramesh completed his Post-doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Among his many scientific and professional endeavors, Dr. Ramesh has founded numerous business ventures focused on the development of alternative energy products and processes including cutting edge work with plastic-to-fuel conversion technology and hybrid organic photovoltaics.

Carl Berman spent 5 years in the US Navy and 25 years in the NOAA Corps, working as an oceanographer and fisheries biologist for the US Government.

He received his Ph.D. in Marine Science from the College of William and Mary in 1983 while on active duty. During this time he served on three ships, the last of which was the ALBATROSS IV which he commanded, and as a project manager with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (of UNESCO), in Paris. Carl's on-line teaching activities include marine biology, general biology, meteorology, geology, environmental change, physical science, and computer science. Carl has also served as an in-class lecturer for biology, geology, polar history, and physics. In addition, Carl has presented several talks on Polar Exploration to the Life Long Learning Program at the University of Texas. Carl married Joyce Gioia, a professional speaker and Futurist, in December of 2009, and they live in Austin, TX.

Carl's interests include RV travel, reading, cooking, music, photography, writing, and riding his "trike."