Research Diving Program
Meet Our People
| CSUMB Diving Control Board | Title |
|---|---|
| James Lindholm, Ph.D. | Chair & MSCI Faculty |
| Nick Nechay | CSUMB Diving Safety Officer |
| Travis Leggett | MSCI Faculty, Graduate Student Representative |
| Sal Jorgensen | MSCI Faculty |
| Amy Thomas | Director of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management |
| Scott Chapman | Diving Safety Officer, Monterey Bay Aquarium |
| Deborah Stewart | Advisory, Dive Medicine |
Program Administrators
James Lindholm
James is a native Californian who grew up surfing and diving outside of San Luis Obispo, CA (approximately 2.5 hours south of Monterey). He arrived at CSUMB in January 2007 as an active scientific diver, having worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in New England and a private research institute in southern California. Immediately upon arrival at CSUMB, James was introduced to Frank Degnan, the instructor for the recreational dive courses and the part-time Diving Safety Officer. Together, and despite a variety of hurdles, they developed the scientific diving program, ultimately merging all dive courses, personnel and resources under the umbrella of the new Department of Marine Science into what is now the largest university dive program in the country.
James has conducted SCUBA-based research on six continents (no trips to Antarctica yet) and has been a participant in six missions to the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory in the Florida Keys (four as a saturation diver, two as a member of the surface diving team). Much of James' research involves the collection of undersea imagery, including stereo diver-operated video and, more recently, 360-degree video for virtual reality, to better understand where fish are and why they're there.
If James isn't diving, usually accompanied by his teenage daughter, he can be found surfing (also accompanied by his daughter), riding his road bike, or writing undersea adventure novels.
Nick Nechay (bio coming)