Drew Hamilton is responsible for managing the PMEL/JISAO Atmospheric Chemistry Group's laboratory facilities on-shore at the Sand Point campus and on-board ships at sea. He designs and supervises the construction of new laboratory facilities and systems and maintains existing facilities and systems. Over the past couple of years our equipment inventory and measurement capability has grown appreciably, along with the increased complexity and number of sampling systems adding to his responsibilities. Drew also consults and designs new portable science containers for colleagues’ world wide.

One of his secondary responsibilities is logistical support for the science team. As the lead group on most field campaigns, Drew must interface nationally and internationally with large numbers of scientists and ships’ technicians and crew to coordinate logistical issues and sampling systems. He also conducts several of the routine atmospheric measurements during cruises. These include sun photometry, radon monitoring, Radiosonde / Ozonesonde balloon launching, filter sampling for chemical analysis and preliminary data handling and archiving. These measurements are very important to the integration and understanding for the overall data set.

The sun photometry data - "Aerosol Optical Depth" taken on TEXAQS 2006 was used to ground truth the recently launched CALIPSO LIDAR Satellite and the "A-Train" satellite retrieval data. The CALIPSO flies as part of the Aqua Satellite constellation (or A-train), which consists of the Aqua, CloudSat, CALIPSO, PARASOL, and Aura satellite missions.

Drew has undertaken outreach activities in working with teachers-at-sea, instructing and training them on the use of several instruments and their relevance. He has also participated in the UW's GEAR UP program & NOAA's Science Camp. He is active in many PNW salmon habitat restoration & coastal clean up projects with the WA State Parks and the Dept. of Ecology and the Snoqualmie - Mt. Baker National Park.

Drew began his training as a sea-going expert at Miami-Dade Marine Science Center and then on the job as an Oceanographic Research Technician at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. He was Senior Oceanographic Survey Technician aboard the National Ocean Survey’s NOAA Ship Researcher for 15 years. He has been working for JISAO for 14 years now and with thirty years of sailing on oceanographic survey ships of all types, he has racked up a few nautical miles traveling to every part of the globe.

When not on Oceanographic cruises, Drew enjoys sailing, fishing, hiking, camping & 4 wheeling in the PNW with his wife Genevieve & their Scottish terrier "Graphite."