Science Team

Dr. Charlie Branham received his B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University, M.S. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Washington and Ph.D. in Process Analytical Chemistry from the University of Washington. He was also a Postdoctoral Fellow and Senior Chemist at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Seattle, WA prior to joining Sea-Bird. Charlie’s research interests are focused on developing stable, robust, precise and fast responding sensors for the analysis of complex systems. To this end, he has worked to improve current and design new optical oxygen sensors for use in a variety of challenging applications, such as analyzing fermentation media, arterial blood, jet fuel and deep sea hydrothermal vent fluid. In addition to his main research interests, Charlie enjoys using multivariate data analysis techniques to increase the knowledge gained from sensors and instruments analyzing complex industrial, biological, and environmental process streams.

Laura Collins received her BS in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College. Prior to Sea-Bird, she worked for several years in industrial chemistry research on the development and characterization of catalytic materials for hydrotreating applications (hydrotreating is a process that removes pollutants from fuels, reducing harmful emissions from their combustion). As Sea-Bird Scientific's metrologist, she oversees the maintenance of the metrology lab and associated calibration systems, ensuring our calibration systems meet the exacting standards expected of the industry. She also aids in the development and improvement of calibration methods to make our sensors accurate and reliable.

Rob received his BSc in Biology with a concentration in Marine Science from the Boston University Marine Program and a MSc in Oceanography from Old Dominion University where his graduate research focused on effect of marine phytoplankton on iodine speciation. Rob has spent his career developing innovative in situ sensing technologies for marine and surface water applications. Prior to joining Sea-Bird, Rob served as VP of Technology for Xylem’s Analytics Division that encompasses ten analytics businesses including YSI, SonTek, Aanderaa, and WTW. Rob joined Sea-Bird in 2019 as the Director of Engineering.

Genevieve received a B.S. in Marine Science from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and an M.S. in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina –Wilmington, where she studied marine mammal acoustics, with a focus on acoustic signal acquisition system design and data processing. After graduate school, she started at Sea-Bird as a Calibration Technician, working with our metrologist to define best practices for conductivity measurements . As Operations Director for the Bellevue, Washington site, she managed a team of 50+ associates who are responsible for all aspects of production at Sea-Bird from board-level testing, through instrument build, calibration, system integration and final test, shipping, production engineering support, and EHS & facilities management. She also served as Director of Supply Chain, responsible for setting procurement strategy and developing processes to support the best delivery and quality for our customers. Currently, she is the Director of Global Service & Technical Support, providing leadership and direction to our repair and calibration operations, service administration, and technical support teams.

Dr. Jochen Klinke received his M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from Heidelberg University. He worked at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, developing imaging techniques for visualization of exchange processes across the air-sea interface and working on the original prototype Underwater CTD (UCTD) design. Jochen came to Sea-Bird from Oceanscience, where he worked on commercialized the UCTD for oceanographic and hydrographic applications, and developed the rapidCAST for automatic water column profiling from moving vessels. He is a Principal Scientist in the Product Management group, with responsibility for our CTD products.

David Murphy is the former Director of Research and Development at Sea-Bird Scientific. His focus is on oceanographic sensor design, characterization, and calibration. He was previously responsible for Sea-Bird’s metrology work with oversight of the calibration facility, and acted as an instructor for Sea-Bird’s training course, leading courses since 2000. He has been working at Sea-Bird since 1991, prior to that he worked at Texas A&M Department of Oceanography as a Research Engineer. He studied oceanography at the University of Washington and Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Natalie received her B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Delaware, and an M.S. in Oceanography from Texas A&M University. Whoop! Her graduate research focused on air-sea-ice interactions and current dynamics over the shelf break in East Antarctica. She became familiar with Sea-Bird products through her graduate work and participation on GO-SHIP cruise NBP1702. Natalie joined the Technical Support team at Sea-Bird in 2018 where she became an expert at instrument troubleshooting and best practices. She now uses her science background and sea experience to develop next generation products and functional requirements as a Product Manager.

Dr. Eric Rehm received his Ph.D. in Oceanography at the University of Washington, and went on to study Arctic marine ecosystems using ocean optics on autonomous platforms with Université Laval’s Takuvik team in Québec, Canada. Oceanography was a career transition for Eric, following a 25 year career in computer science, software development, search engine architecture, and audio-visual metadata standards ( ISO MPEG-7, ASC CDL). His passion is multi- and hyperspectral understanding of light in water, particularly leading to a better understanding of phytoplankton productivity, taxonomic composition, and bloom phenology using passive (radiometry, satellite ocean color), active (LED, laser, LiDAR) optics, and spectroscopy. Eric also dabbles in underwater and under-ice acoustics.