Craig J. Brown,

Applied Research, Nova Scotia Community College

Craig Brown is an NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Integrated Ocean Mapping Technologies at the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Dr. Brown earned his PhD from the University of Portsmouth in the UK in the field of marine fouling ecology in 1998. He joined NSCC in 2014, having previously held positions in Government science (UK and Canada), academia and the private sector. His research interests focus on the application of seafloor acoustics (multibeam sonar, sidescan sonar, single beam acoustics) for studying, mapping and monitoring benthic ecosystems, and over this time he has gained cross-disciplinary expertise working across the fields of marine ecology, geology, geophysics, oceanography and ocean technology. Through close collaboration with a number of industry partners, his current applied R&D work at NSCC is focused on exploring the application of new seafloor sensor technologies to improve the way we can map the seafloor for sustainable resource exploitation and sound environmental stewardship. The research aims to help improve available seafloor sensor technologies, develop new systems, and refine the way that data from complementary sensor systems can be integrated to produce ocean floor maps. Initial focus is on fisheries applications and Marine Protected Area (MPA) mapping and monitoring. Dr. Brown is also an Adjunct Professor at Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador.