Meet the Team
The WHOI Reef Solutions team is a group of scientists and engineers dedicated to transforming outcomes for vulnerable reefs.
Our convergence research approach enables novel technologies and experimental frameworks to quickly test and deploy interventions, in partnership with local communities and conservation organizations.
Principal Investigators
Amy Apprill
Coral reef microbiology
Amy is developing ways to use reef water microorganisms as indicators of ocean and reef health, and testing how microorganisms can be used as probiotics to improve coral and reef health. Although she grew up without the ocean in Missouri, she now loves SCUBA diving, ocean swimming and training and inspiring new ocean scientists.
Yogesh (Yogi) Girdhar
Reef robotics & AI
Yogi developed CUREE, an autonomous robot capable of monitoring different aspects of a coral reef ecosystem. CUREE can rapidly survey coral reefs and produce metrics such as coral cover, bleaching, and biodiversity and also identify bioactivity hotspots. Yogi is working on improving his free-diving skills.
Colleen Hansel
Coral chemistry & health
Colleen develops sensors to measure a suite of chemicals involved in coral health and stress (reactive oxygen species and volatile halogenated organic compounds) and is developing micronutrient supplements to enhance coral growth and immunity. Colleen enjoys SCUBA diving and sailing with her family and friends.
Konrad Hughen
Coral biochemistry
Konrad investigates new indicators of coral health and resilience based on cellular membranes and other lipid molecules. He is developing new instruments and methodologies to measure coral stress underwater on the reef.
Marine (Yaqin) Liu
Coral Reef Policy
Marine examines human interactions within coral reef ecosystems. She develops bio-economic models to examine medium- to long-term effects of reef degradation on fisheries. Marine enjoys board games, swimming, running, and all other outdoor activities.
Matt Long
Coral reef metabolism and chemical fluxes
Matt is developing new instruments that enable real-time measurements of reef growth and metabolism for monitoring the “vital signs” of coral reefs. Matt enjoys building things: from modern versions of classic cars to ocean observing companies.
Aran Mooney
Reef soundscapes & biodiversity
Aran studies reef health and biodiversity through reef soundscapes. His team has been studying coral reefs in the USVI since 2012, the longest ongoing acoustic monitoring of any reefs in the world! They’ve been applying this knowledge to solutions such as replaying reef sounds to attract baby corals and fishes. He's been a water person his entire life, and enjoys swimming with his kids and Labrador retriever.
Weifeng (Gordon) Zhang
Reef Physics
Gordon deploys instruments at strategic locations to measure water motion and hydrodynamic conditions over coral reefs. He also develops high-resolution hydrodynamic computer models to quantify underwater weather, study larval transport in reefs, and guide efficient reef experiments and restoration activities. Being enthusiastic about tennis, Gordon enjoys hitting balls with tennis players around the world during his coral reef fieldworks.
Team Members
John Cast
Perception and Robot System Development
John builds perception stacks for CUREE and Tektite AI, integrating vision hardware, software, and real-time algorithms that help CUREE understand its environment and gather research data. He also supports field operations and general hardware and software development of CUREE.
Natalie Danek
Coral Chemistry & Health
Natalie is developing micronutrient substrates to help reefs increase coral growth and resilience to stressors. Outside of the lab she enjoys baking, paddle boarding, and making macramé art.
Brianna Garcia
Coral Health
Brianna is developing new metabolomics-based health indices for corals and reef ecosystems. Outside of the lab she enjoys reading, traveling, and scoping out new additions to her LEGO and vinyl collection.
Nathan Figueroa
AI/Embedded Development
Nathan Figueroa
AI/Embedded Development
Nathan is an AI and embedded software developer for WHOI, working across a variety of labs. Nathan contributes to the CUREE and Tektite AI programs as a software developer, focusing on data pipelines, full stack development, and robotics controls.
Nate Formel
Reef soundscapes, field logistics & tool design
Nate works with Aran on collecting and analyzing coral reef soundscape data to leverage passive acoustic monitoring as a management tool. He also helps the team with field logistics to carry out fieldwork and develops tools and deployment systems for streamlining research efforts. Whether working or playing, you can find Nate in, on, or around the water!
Nathan McGuire
Robotic System Development
Nathan designs, builds, and maintains hardware and software for the CUREE AUV. This includes mechanical design of the vehicle, control system, mission, and GUI software, as well as some advanced vision processing development. In his free time, Nathan enjoys swimming, sailing, and hiking.
Trevor Milliken
Coral probiotics
Trevor is adding to the Reef Solutions Toolkit by developing probiotics to improve coral health and resilience. Trevor enjoys fishing, boating and sailing, skiing, and exploring Cape Cod.
John Walsh
Reef AI
John develops machine learning and computer vision models that scale expert analysis of coral reef environments. He builds software that converts data from CUREE, the group’s autonomous robot, into 3D maps supporting species classification, substrate segmentation, and coral bleaching detection.
Students & Postdocs
Nadege Aoki
Joint Program Student
Eric Chen
Joint Program Student
Jeanne Bloomberg
Joint Program Student
Mallory Kastner
Joint Program Student
Samuel Koeck
Joint Program Student
Audrey Sarin
Joint Program Student
Daniel Yang
Joint Program Student
Partnerships
