MTS Welcomes Two New Board Members

The Marine Technology Society (MTS) announced that it has elected two new board members: Jerry Miller and Josh Kohut.

The Board Members elected Dr. Jerry Miller, President of Science for Decisions, to serve on its Board of Directors as the Vice President of Government and Public Affairs. MTS has also elected Dr. Josh Kohut, a professor at Rutgers University at the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, to serve on its Board of Directors as the Vice President of Education. The positions for both will run from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022.

As Vice President of Government and Public Affairs, Miller will oversee policy and be responsible for building productive relationships with federal agencies, state, local, tribal governments, legislatures and the media in the U.S. and internationally. He takes over the role of VP of Government and Public Affairs from Craig McLean.

Taking over as Vice President of Education from Liesl Hotaling, Kohut will ensure that the Society develops and maintains positive and productive relationships with academic institutions, laboratories—both public and private—and research institutes and helps develop opportunities for students.

Miller earned his B.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina, his M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, and his Ph.D. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the University of Miami. He is the president of Science for Decisions, a consulting practice which he founded in 2013 to ensure that solid science is available to inform decisions that impact people and places around the globe.

Miller also served from 2015 through early 2017 as Director of the Science and Technology for Sustainability Program at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Previously, Miller held senior positions, including Assistant Director for Ocean Sciences at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he was instrumental in the creation of the United States’ first National Ocean Policy.

He has published widely in the peer-reviewed literature and made significant contributions to several major federal policy documents. His work has been recognized with awards both in the U.S. and abroad, including for the development of salinity remote sensing technology.

Kohut graduated cum laude in 1997 with a B.S. in physics from the College of Charleston and earned his Ph.D. in physical oceanography from Rutgers University in 2002. Kohut was an early adopter of HF Radar and underwater glider technologies and has remained at the forefront of their development, operation and use.

Perhaps the most scientifically significant of Kohut’s technology applications was the glider he deployed ahead of Hurricane Irene, used to identify the previously unrecognized rapid mixing and extreme cooling response of the coastal ocean that then fed back on Irene’s intensity. The discovery was published in Nature Communications and was fundamental to establishing the US Hurricane Glider Sentinel Program in 2018.

Since 2010, Kohut has been an author on nine peer-reviewed publications in the MTS Journal. He has been the faculty advisor to the Rutgers MTS student section since 2013 and is the founding Director of the MTS Glider Technology Camp at Rutgers.