The USC Spatial Sciences Institute welcomes LCDR [R] Christopher Verlinden, Ph.D., to its faculty as of the Spring 2019 semester.
During his 14-year career with the United States Coast Guard, Dr. Verlinden developed expertise in geospatial information systems, remote sensing, environmental response planning, and ocean acoustics, including novel sonar techniques and methods. He was first stationed aboard the Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Sea as the science officer, conducting research missions ranging from methane hydrate research to capturing polar bears. He later served on the USCGC Sycamore out of Cordova, Alaska, where he served as operations officer overseeing on-scene Coast Guard assets during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and as project officer for oil spill response exercises in support of Operation Arctic Shield, earning five arctic service medals in the process.
From 2014 – 2018, Dr. Verlinden was a professor of marine science and geospatial science at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, where he taught undergraduate courses in remote sensing, geospatial information systems, geospatial intelligence, atmospheric and marine science, ocean acoustics, geophysical fluid dynamics, and wave physics. He has supervised student research in the fields of geospatial information systems, remote sensing, marine mammal physiology and population dynamics, physical oceanography, Coast Guard law enforcement and search and rescue mission optimization, and ocean acoustics. He managed joint government research initiatives with the U.S. Navy, NOAA, and NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) and also taught seamanship and navigation aboard the Academy’s coastal sail training vessels.
He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals; his most recent article is “Determination of acoustic waveguide invariant using ships as sources of opportunity in a shallow water marine environment” in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(2), EL102-EL107, 2017, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1121.1.4976112. His doctoral research focused on passive ocean acoustic source localization and remote sensing.
Dr. Verlinden received his Ph.D., Oceanography, specialty in Ocean Acoustics and Digital Signal Processing, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; his M.S., Oceanography, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and his B.S., Marine and Environmental Science, major in Physical Oceanography, Chemical Oceanography, and Biological Oceanography, United States Coast Guard Academy, high honors. He is from Portland, Oregon and currently resides in Washington, D.C., providing remote sensing consulting services.
