Webinar Archive:  Sound During Offshore Wind Developments

Consideration of Underwater Sound During Offshore Wind Developments

Dr. Jill Lewandowski, Director BOEM Environmental Assessment, Director BOEM Center for Marine Acoustics
Dr. Jill Lewandowski holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from George Mason University. She currently serves as BOEM’s Director of the Division of Environmental Assessment and the Center for Marine Acoustics. Collectively, she leads a national-level team of experts in providing environmental science and policy advice to decision-makers. Dr. Lewandowski also manages strategic initiatives to improve scientific rigor, stakeholder engagement, readability and effectiveness of BOEM’s environmental analyses. She previously served as BOEM’s subject matter expert on protected species and marine sound issues and also managed the Division’s compliance with environmental consultations. Prior to joining BOEM in 2005, Dr. Lewandowski worked as a marine biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service and as a conservation programs administrator for the National Wildlife Federation.

Stan Labak, Acoustic Modeling Lead, BOEM Center for Marine Acoustics
Stan Labak is the Acoustic Modelling Lead in the Center for Marine Acoustics (CMA) in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), US Department of the Interior. In this capacity, he has been responsible for the technical oversight of BOEM’s acoustic-related activities including review and procurement of BOEM-funded scientific studies and contracts, review of all internally generated acoustic analyses, review of acoustic regulatory reports and analyses, and service as the subject matter expert for acoustics for BOEM in the review process of other government agency Directives, Guidance or technical queries. Stan has extensive experience in the planning and execution of complex field experiments designed to test and evaluated the performance of naval sonar systems. For the last 25 years, Stan has been involved in the development of the acoustic impact analyses for numerous environmental compliance documents for many military sonars and all BOEM-regulated activities. He is a former submarine officer.

Alex Conrad, BOEM Center for Marine Acoustics modeling team
Alex Conrad has been a part of the modeling team in BOEM’s Center for Marine Acoustics (CMA) and Office of Renewable Energy Programs (OREP) since 2021. For 10 years before that, he worked as a Research Engineer with Greeneridge Sciences Inc. While there, he collected and analyzed underwater acoustic data to assess human effects on marine life. Most of his fieldwork was inside the Arctic Circle with a few trips to Hawaii. Alex’s analysis efforts ranged from using direct measurements for the assessment of vessel noise, to writing software used by manual analysts for identifying belugas and an automated detector for Greenland narwhal clicks.
Alex received his MS in Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University, which included work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His thesis was titled, “Determination of sea bottom properties from spectral acoustic data” and involved modeling underwater acoustic propagation on the New Jersey shelf. Before that, he spent two years working on tall ships, including Lady Washington and Shenandoah. He graduated from Northeastern University with a BS in Physics (Minor: Marine Studies) where he experimented with and modeled microwave propagation through metamaterials with negative indices of refraction.

Recording of the September 14 DOSITS Webinar