Dr. Chris Verlinden has extensive military experience, drawing from a 14-year career as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. He has worked with the Office of Naval Research and Naval Research Laboratories extensively on projects ranging from seismic exploration to ocean acoustics and signal processing. Specifically, Dr. Verlinden is a subject matter expert in the use of large vertical aperture arrays (LVAs), and making environmental inferences using passive and source of opportunity acoustic noise. He graduated from the Coast Guard Academy with high honors with a degree in Marine and Environmental Sciences in 2008, whereupon he was stationed aboard the Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Sea as the Science Officer for two years. Research missions while serving aboard Polar Sea ranged from methane hydrate research to capturing polar bears. In 2010, Dr. Verlinden transferred to USCGC Sycamore out of Cordova, Alaska where he served as Operations Officer for two years.

During this time, Dr. Verlinden served as task force leader for on-scene Coast Guard assets during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and as project officer for oil spill response exercises in support of Operation Arctic Shield, earning five arctic service medals in the process. Dr. Verlinden completed his graduate work at Scripps Institution of Oceanography earning an M.S. in Oceanography in 2014 with research focusing on passive ocean acoustics and the information content of ocean noise. Dr. Verlinden holds numerous professional certifications including commercial vessel captain’s licenses, FAA sUAS operator licenses, and Geospatial Technology certifications. In 2014, Dr. Verlinden began teaching at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the Marine Science section and, in 2017, completed his Ph.D. at Scripps Institution of Oceanography with research focusing on passive acoustic source localization and environmental inversion. In September 2018, Dr. Verlinden separated from the military as an O4, and began working with Ocean Acoustical Services and Instrumentation Systems (OASIS), and in January, 2019 became a founding partner in Applied Ocean Sciences, where he is currently a Senior Scientist and Chief Technology Officer.