Dr Gavin Tilstone is a Senior Scientific Officer at PML and works in bio-optical oceanography and remote sensing and has expertise in ocean colour, satellite validation and algorithm development, optics, phytoplankton photosynthesis and primary production. His role is to expand the use of Earth Observation data for studying the environment and quantifying the marine carbon cycle by bringing in research funding, to lead and manage a research group consisting of PhD and post-doctoral scientists and to publish novel research in high impact journals. Over the past fifteen years he has been developing marine research that links optical oceanography and remote sensing to address key environmental issues. This includes satellite ocean colour validation for both open ocean (case 1) and coastal case 2 waters, development of a range of satellite primary production algorithms both globally, open ocean waters of the Atlantic and coastal areas. He has used these algorithms to generate time series to evaluate changes in the carbon cycle in the global ocean. His work on MERIS validation has gained international recognition. Through the NERC-National Capabilities, the Atlantic Meridional Transect & Western Channel Observatory, Gavin collects time series of bio-optical and primary production data that are widely used for Earth Observation science and form important components of databases such as ESA MERMAID and NERC-BODC. Dr Tilstone’s research activities are highly inter-disciplinary and have a strong links with research in Biogeochemistry, Biodiversity and Socio-economics. He has worked on >25 International and EU research projects, has considerable management experience as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on 16 ESA, EU, NERC and Commercial projects. He has managed a wide range post-doctoral and visiting fellowships and has supervised 9 PhD projects.

Optical oceanography and remote sensing to address key environmental issues.