Catalina Martinez

As a scientist for NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), Catalina wears many hats. Her work primarily consists of project management, from the grant proposal submission stage, through the execution of projects. Catalina coordinates several major expeditions each year, providing operational support, and leading an OE team to assist with data management and Web product development for the NOAA Ocean Explorer Web site. Catalina is also part of the OE Outreach and Education team, coordinating and implementing various direct, as well as virtual efforts associated with OE sponsored expeditions. Ms. Martinez joined OE as a Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Sea Grant Fellow in 2002, and was hired on after the Fellowship ended. She completed a master’s degree in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography in 2000, and received a second master’s degree in marine affairs from URI in 2002. Catalina recently moved back to RI to implement a very exciting collaboration between NOAA OE and the Sea Research Foundation’s Institute for Exploration (IFE) developed through a Joint Project Agreement in 2004. This season, Catalina is coordinating two back-to-back expeditions on board the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown in which the IFE ROV’s Hercules and Argus will be utilized. The first leg of the expedition will revisit the Lost City hydrothermal vent fields, and the focus of the second leg (called Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones) is to explore a group of seamounts in the eastern North Atlantic.