Shirley Pomponi & Bill Clancey

Dr. Shirley Pomponi is Research Professor and Executive Director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, in Fort Pierce, Florida, Professor of Marine Biotechnology in the Bioprocess Engineering Group at Wageningen University, Netherlands, and Adjunct Scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami. Her research focuses on marine biotechnology, in general, and sponge systematics, cell and molecular biology, in particular. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is co-inventor on several patents. She represents FAU on and actively participates in the National and Southern Associations of Marine Laboratories and the Florida Institute of Oceanography. She recently co-chaired a National Academy of Sciences study, requested by the National Science Foundation: “Sea Change: 2015-2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences”.

Dr. William J. Clancey, a senior research scientist at IHMC, is a computer scientist whose research relates cognitive and social science in the study of work practices and the design of agent systems. He received a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University and Mathematical Sciences BA at Rice University. He has developed artificial intelligence applications for medicine, education, robotics, and spaceflight systems. At the Institute for Research on Learning (1987-1997) he co-developed ethnographic methods for studying and modeling work systems. On an IPA assignment at NASA Ames Research Center (1998-2013) as Chief Scientist of Human-Centered Computing in the Intelligent Systems Division he participated in seventeen field science expeditions, including Mars mission simulations during five field seasons on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic and as “commander” of the Mars Society’s Desert Research Station in Utah.  He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Association for Advancement of AI, and the American College of Medical Informatics. His seven books include Working on Mars: Voyages of scientific discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers (recipient of AIAA 2014 Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award). He has presented invited lectures in over 20 countries.