Pod25 - Professor Gwyn Griffiths - a life in Ocean Technology, Innovation and Discovery.

Episode 25, Thursday 3rd September 2020. SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Professor Gwyn Griffiths, who has had a long career pushing the boundaries of new technology in ocean engineering within the oceanographic sciences community, starting as keen young scientist at school in Holy Island, North Wales, building underwater communications equipment while still a student.
Gwyn Griffiths received his B.A. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Essex, U.K. in 1975, and M.Sc. degree in underwater systems engineering from the University of Birmingham, U.K. in 1976. He joined the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, U.K., in 1976 and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, U.K. at its formation in 1995, retiring as Chief Technologist in 2012. From 2000 to 2012 he held a part-time Chair in Underwater Systems at the University of Southampton, U.K.
His research interests centre on underwater technology and applications for oceanography, especially on instrumentation and autonomous marine vehicles and fostering their use by the research, defence and commercial sectors - and also the history of ocean science & instrumentation.
Under Gwyn's leadership, the Autosub AUV quickly demonstrated success as a scientific instrument able to gather valuable data from hitherto hard to reach locations such as underneath polar ice, and he was innovative in bringing in talent from outside the traditional marine science community to help deliver successful missions, using expert statisticians and risk analysts to help plan science, sensor deployments and data-gathering systems able to work in all weathers in under-sampled areas of ocean.
Gwyn has strong trans-Atlantic links and has worked extensively with colleagues in the USA and Canada. He remains a highly regarded and influential technologist, continuing to write, publish and encourage the real-world use of advanced equipment.
Gwyn can be contacted via his business http://www.autonomousanalytics.com/ or via SUT.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the SUT, a past Chair of the SUT Council and a Past President. His awards include the David Partridge and President’s Awards from the SUT and the IEEE OES Distinguished Technical Achievement Award.
Many of his publications are available via www.researchgate.net/profile/Gwyn_Griffiths3
Find out more about SUT at www.sut.org, contact Steve Hall at steve.hall@sut.org
Thanks to Emily Boddy for podcast artwork, and for composing and performing the theme music, & thanks to Zapsplat.com for ambient underwater sounds. 
Please also contact Steve if you would like to feature in a future episode. Thanks for listening.