Larry Breaker

Biography: 

Currently Adjunct Professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML). Previously, as Visiting Scientist, coordinated the seminar series at the laboratory for the 2001-02 academic year. Presently serving as lead PI on a NASA-funded project to use ocean models and SAR imagery to estimate cloud-related biases in our understanding of the upper ocean during periods of extended cloud cover off the California coast. Have received Sea Grant awards to (1) reconstruct the 82-year time series of daily sea surface temperature at Hopkins Marine Station, (2) produce a climatology of ocean fronts off the California coast using imagery from the GOES-10 geostationary satellite, and (3), develop statistical models or proxies to predict offshore parameters based on coastal observations. Reconstruction of the Hopkins times series has led to three manuscripts that have been submitted for publication related to the reconstruction and analysis of this record. Co-taught graduate courses in Satellite Oceanography (2002) and Ocean Modeling (2003). Advising students on thesis-related research. Consulted for Duke Power on the impact of thermal discharge in Morro Bay (2001). Consultant for Monterey Peninsula College on the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) program.

Awards and Honors:

• Selected to make two deep dives aboard Deep Research Vehicle ALVIN in the Tongue-of-the-Ocean, Bahamas (1967).
• Offered Chair in Remote Sensing at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1986 and 1999.
• Nominated and accepted for inclusion in American Men and Women of Science (1997).
• Appointed to serve on the Environmental Policy Commission for the City of Alexandria, Virginia  (1997-1999).
• Received NOAA’s Bronze Medal for major contributions to the Coastal Marine Demonstration Project sponsored by the National Ocean Partnership Program (2000).
• Appointed to serve on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council  (2007).
• Who’s Who in America in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
• Selected to serve on a National Academy of Sciences committee to address sea level rise for the U.S. West Coast.  Contributed to a final report entitled “Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington”, published by the National Research Council (2012), 201 pp.