International Continental Shelf Survey

Bill Schmoker is an Earth Science teacher at Centennial Middle School in Boulder, Colorado. He holds a Secondary Earth Science Education degree from the University of Northern Colorado, a master's degree in Secondary Science Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and has been teaching for 17 years. Additionally, Mr. Schmoker works with pre-service teachers, is a member of Centennial's Technology Committee, has authored, edited, and consulted on many Earth Science Education products, and has held many leadership roles at the building and district levels throughout his career.

Mr. Schmoker is also passionate about birding and bird photography. For several summers he has conducted bird monitoring transects for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. He has been an instructor for the American Birding Association's Youth Birding Program and for their Institute for Field Ornithology. Bill has photographed over 600 species of North American Birds, and his photos appear internationally in numerous books, magazines, web sites, and interpretive signage. When not teaching or birding Bill treasures time in his gardens and with his family.

Helen Gibbons is a public information scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California. Ms. Gibbons works with USGS scientists around the country to publish informative articles about their coastal and ocean research in the monthly newsletter Sound Waves (http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/). She also helps researchers create written materials, displays, and hands-on activities for members of the general public interested in USGS science. She is looking forward to sharing ideas with the two teachers participating in the August 2010 Canada-U.S. joint Arctic expedition. Helen will serve as web coordinator for logs and images posted at the Continental Shelf Project Website (http://continentalshelf.gov/) before and during the expedition.

Jonathan Childs is a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California. Mr. Childs scientific interests include using seismic reflection data to study and map the seafloor and studying the unique laws of the worlds oceans.

Brian is a sedimentologist with the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center who will serve as Chief Scientist aboard Healy during the joint U.S.-Canada extended-continental-shelf survey in August. He brings to the job more than 30 years of sea-going experience on 60-plus coring and geophysical cruises along the west coast of the United States, the Ross Sea (Antarctica), the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bering Sea. Brian specializes in sedimentary processes and stratigraphy, integrating insights gleaned from seafloor rock and sediment samples with information from remote-mapping products, such as close-up photographs of the seafloor, high-resolution bathymetric maps, and seismic-reflection profiles (sound "slices" through the seafloor that create an image like rocks exposed on the walls of the Grand Canyon). His recent studies have focused on how sediment moves from the land to the deep sea, processes controlling submarine landslides, saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifer systems, marine pollution, and seafloor habitats.