CLASS OF 2017

Dr. David Wells

David Wells has had an outstanding career, highlighted by his work with GPS and work to streamline the processing of multibeam sonar data. In addition, he has been an educator and advisor to a generation of hydrographers.

After his early training in nuclear physics, David went on to obtain a PhD in Geodesy from the University of New Brunswick. After returning to UNB in 1980, he was instrumental in the preparation of the “Guide to GPS Positioning”. He played a key role in the creation of the Ocean Mapping Group at UNB and helped to establish the Geodetic Research Laboratory. David has served on the faculties of UNB, UNH and USM. He now teaches graduate courses in hydrography at USM.

Dr. David Wells has published over 250 technical papers and reports on precise positioning, marine positioning and ocean mapping.

Jerry Mills

Jerry Mills recently retired from a 42-year career as a hydrographer. He served 22 years as a NOAA-Corps officer, serving multiple tours of Alaska. His shore-based duties including serving as Chief of the Ocean Mapping Section which produced NOAA’s first multibeam bathymetric maps.

Jerry retired from the NOAA Corps in 1993, but continued to serve in the Hydrographic Surveys Division of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. He was the US representative on numerous working groups of the International Hydrographic Organization and was the US delegate to the Federation of International Surveyors (FIG) Commission 4 for 12 years.

In addition, Jerry has been a member of THSOA since 1982 and acted as Secretary from 1996 to 2005.

Dr. Larry Mayer

Dr. Larry Mayer has been at the forefront of advances in deep-water sonar, 3D and 4D visualization and the usage of hydrography as applied to the Law of the Sea. He has also been an educator of a generation of hydrographers.

Larry received his PhD in Marine Geophysics from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1979. He later did Post-Doctorate work at URI where he worked on the development of Chirp Sonar.

In 1982, he began his career as an educator in the Dept. of Oceanography at Dalhousie University. In 1991, he joined the University of New Brunswick as the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Ocean Mapping.

He is 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.

He has served on numerous committees, including the President’s Panel on Ocean Exploration, the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for Geoscience, and NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Advisory Working Group. Dr. Mayer is currently the chair of the National Academies of Science’s Ocean Studies Board.

With his work at Dalhousie, UNB and UNH, Larry Mayer has influenced the careers of hydrographers around the world.