James Gardner is a research professor with a Ph.D. in Marine Geology and Geophysics. He completed his thesis on the paleoceanography of the eastern Equatorial Atlantic in 1973. He spent 2 years (1973-1975) with the Deep Sea Drilling Project at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, From 1075 to 2003, he was a Senior Research Marine Geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA. Since joining the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, Durham in 2003, he has been in charge of the U.S. Law of the Sea Bathymetry Project and has conducted mapping in all of the areas of U.S. interest except the Arctic Ocean. This involves planning and conducting mapping cruises, processing the data during each cruise for bathymetry and acoustic backscatter and archiving the data on the CCOM-JHC Law of the Sea website and at NOAA/NGDC.
His research interests are in investigating the morphology of continental margins and adjacent deep-ocean basins. He speculates on the sedimentary processes that contributed to the evolution of the deep-sea landscapes.
Dr. Gardner is currently working with various panels of the U.S. State Department’s ECS Task Force to compile the bathymetric evidence for extended continental shelves on U.S. continental margins.
In addition to leading all non-Arctic US Law of the Sea bathymetry cruises , Jim is also involved in research methods to extract meaningful geological information from multibeam acoustic backscatter through ground truth and advanced image analysis methods.
Jim was honored by the SEPM/Society of Sedimentary Geology in 2012 by receiving the Francis P. Shepard Medal for Sustained Excellence in Marine Geology.
