Coastal Dumpsite Experts
UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography has a variety of scientific expertise related to observing, understanding, and mitigating the industrial waste dumpsite in the San Pedro Basin. If you are a reporter interested in contacting these researchers to schedule an interview, or are interested in securing a speaker to discuss this issue at an upcoming event, please email scrippsnews@ucsd.edu.
Lihini Aluwihare
Professor, Chemical Oceanographer
Identifying and characterizing chemical fingerprints of anthopogenic pollutants
Anela Choy
Assistant Professor, Biological Oceanographer
Trophic tracing of contaminants through pelagic food webs
Sarah Gille
Professor, Physical Oceanographer
Ocean current modeling to understand physics of the seafloor and bottom transport and dispersal of contaminants
Amro Hamdoun
Professor, Developmental Biologist and Environmental Toxicologist
Molecular studies of legacy and emerging persistent organic pollutants
Paul Jensen
Professor, Research Microbiologist
Use of metagenomics to analyze role of microbes in breaking down chemical compounds, analysis of microbial community composition
Sophia Merrifield
Assistant Researcher, Physical Oceanographer
Data analytics and machine learning to classify targets on the seafloor
Carlos Neira
Senior Project Scientist
Contaminant influence on benthic invertebrate communities, and body burden
Amina Schartup
Assistant Professor, Biogeochemist
Food web bioaccumulation modeling to understand how contaminants end up in marine species
Brice Semmens
Associate Professor, Director of CalCOFI, Marine Biologist
Time series analysis of biological samples from the Scripps Oceanographic Collections to trace for contaminant levels
Uwe Send
Professor, Physical Oceanographer
Coastal circulation processes and physical-biogeochemical and ecosystem interactions
Eric Terrill
Director of Marine Physical Laboratory, Physical Oceanographer
Ocean robotics expertise to conduct wide area surveys to detect objects on the seafloor