NGI Staff Present NOAA Ocean Exploration Work at 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting

March 21, 2026

Two NGI staff members recently traveled to Glasgow, Scotland to present their work at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting, highlighting NGI's contributions to the NOAA Ocean Exploration Program.



Luke Thompson, Ph.D., Research Professor, based at NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, delivered a presentation titled "Supporting NOAA Ocean Exploration with a Comprehensive Environmental DNA Data Analysis and Sharing Platform." The work supports NOAA Ocean Exploration's eDNA program by focusing on advancing environmental DNA (eDNA) capabilities to improve how ocean biodiversity data are analyzed and shared across research communities. NGI co-authors Research Engineers Carter Rollins and Bayden Willms and Assistant Research Professor Katherine Silliman developed software tools and databases, while Research Scientist Clement Coclet analyzed deep-sea eDNA data from NOAA expeditions. Jennifer Green, Research Associate, served as a co-author on the presentation.



Jennifer Green, who is based at Stennis Space Center, also presented a poster on a newly developed next-generation, cloud-based sample data management application designed to support NOAA Ocean Exploration research activities. The platform streamlines how sample data are collected, managed, and shared among collaborating scientists. Additionally, she was a co-author with a CISESS scientist, Anna Lienesch on "Is Your Data at Risk of Being Lost? Utilizing the FAIR Data Principles to Rescue Legacy Datasets.



The application was developed through a collaborative effort involving NGI programmers Robert Ward and David Sallis, along with partners from several NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institutes. Their work demonstrates the continued impact of NGI's technical and scientific expertise in supporting NOAA's mission to explore and understand the ocean.