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Windward Sciences works with scientists and sailors to conduct research and monitoring across geographies on a wide variety of ecological and oceanographic questions, while aiming to increase community accessibility to these subjects.

Some of these ongoing research projects include biodiversity monitoring in open ocean environments,  marine mammal detection using acoustic data and eDNA, and advancing remote sensing through hyperspectral data and AI.


MEET THE CREW
Dr. Melissa Ward
Melissa received her PhD from the University of California, Davis and conducted her post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford, studying ocean and community-based solutions to climate change. Melissa currently acts as a research scientist with collaborators around the globe, sometimes from her desk in San Diego, and other times from sea.
Pirta Palola
Pirta is a PhD student in the University of Oxford. In her research, she studies coastal marine environments using an innovative combination of remote sensing, machine learning, and computational modeling technologies. Growing up sailing in the Baltic Sea sparked her love for the marine environment, and she is excited to combine her passions in sailing and marine science in the Science at Sea project.
Suzy Garren
Suzy is a long time sailor, having crossed the Pacific in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres from California to Hawaii and French Polynesia. She also has a background in marine biology, trialing hydrophone deployment from sailing vessels for marine mammal monitoring.
Niko Tamminen
Niko is a passionate storyteller and an ocean sailor from Finland. In his journalism studies (MSSc), he's interested to build understanding of the comprehensive phenomena that humankind is facing in a rapidly changing world. On his journeys, Niko has experienced how the marine wildlife is diminishing and trash can be spotted even in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In the Science at Sea project he's on a mission to tell the people about these kinds of observations.
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Read about the Windward Sciences crew's passage across the Pacific here



Interested in collaborating? Get in touch!