Sr. Marine Instrumentation Specialist

John Walpert, Senior Marine Instrumentation Specialist at the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) of Texas A&M University, is in charge of daily operations and system development for the Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS). Mr. Walpert has been involved with the TABS program since his arrival at Texas A&M in 1998. He supervises a dedicated group of 10 instrumentation specialists, ET's and technicians in GERG's Ocean Technology Group, manages and participates in field operations for a variety of oceanographic programs at GERG including those involving moored surface platforms, subsurface current meter arrays and CTD operations. Mr. Walpert received a BS degree in Oceanographic Technology from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1980 and spent the next 18 years participating in oceanographic field studies in the eastern Canadian Arctic, Labrador Sea, the Grand Banks and near Sable Island studying ocean currents, waves, tides, sea ice and icebergs. Mr. Walpert has over 25 years experience using and deploying a large variety of oceanographic instrumentation systems.

Besides the day to day operations of the TABS program, Mr. Walpert's current project work includes subsurface mooring design and field operations for a year long study of turbidity currents in the Congo River Canyon near Angola, design and fabrication of a new series of 2.25m discus buoys for TABS and related programs as well as fabrication of another 3m aluminum discus buoy similar to the NOAA buoys.

Mr. Walpert has been an active participant and speaker at national meetings involving buoy and sensor technology, current metering systems and mooring design since his arrival at GERG in 1998