Dr. Swann

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Dr. Christy Swann is an internationally-recognized, award-winning Earth and Planetary scientist with 20 years of experience studying windblown sand on the beaches of Earth, from Brazil to the Netherlands and even the windy, dusty environment of Mars. Throughout her scientific career, she has built innovative technology that pushes the forefront of our technological capabilities and scientific understanding of Aeolian Geomorphology. 

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Dr. Swann’s scientific accomplishments began during her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from East Carolina University where her research led her to develop the Wind Potential Index which created a method for scientists and planners to estimate the volume of windblown sand accreted during individual wind events. From her Master’s work, she was accepted into a Ph.D. program at Texas A&M University to study with Dr. Doug Sherman, the world’s preeminent coastal dune scientist. During her Ph.D., Dr. Swann started building her own instruments to solve unanswered scientific problems and designed the first instrument capable of discerning the minimum wind speed needed to mobilize windblown sand to enable the dune building process. Her internationally-recognized publications on her scientific breakthroughs were recognized by the NASA Curiosity team, who was looking through the lens of Curiosity on Mars and unable to understand why the current windblown sand models were not working. Dr. Swann’s recent breakthrough from her PhD work led to a NASA postdoctoral fellowship, where she adapted her earth instrumentation for Mars and ran a multitude of experiments at NASA Ames in a Mars low-pressure wind tunnel to solve the Curiosity conundrum. From that work, Dr. Swann unraveled a long-standing question on the fundamental physics of windblown sand and developed a model that predicts the minimum wind speed needed to mobilize sand on Mars, which is how the Red Planet’s dust storms begin. That research won her two prestigious national awards for research excellence: the G.K. Gilbert award and the Alan Berman award.  

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Over the last 7 years, Dr. .Swann has conducted coastal science for naval operations in the Ocean Sciences Division of the Naval Research Laboratory. Her most recent experiment led a team of engineers to build the world’s first field-based particle tracking velocimetry system, producing the first ever 3D measurements of atmospheric turbulence on beaches. She has been invited to publish this research in Aeolian Research, the foremost scientific journal for aeolian geomorphological science. 

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Over her career, Dr. Swann has published over 26 scientific articles on coastal dunes on earth and Mars, advised numerous PhD and Masters students, been an Associate or Guest Editor for high impact scientific journals and served on multiple review panels for universities, NASA and the Navy. She has been invited to give keynote addresses and guest lectures at CalTech, Stanford, Astronomical Societies, and numerous conferences. She currently serves on a Mars lander team in collaboration with partners at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford, Cornell, and other high profile private research institutes. However, she still makes time to mentor young students to promote STEM, women-in-science, entrepreneurship and empower the next generation of groundbreaking scientists, engineers and business owners. She is currently on the board for the international organization of Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering where she is a mentor for young women scientists and focuses on promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the workplace, university programs and beyond.

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In March of 2023, Dr. Swann left the Naval Research Laboratory to start her own company, RCOAST, which places the tools used in the highest levels of research science in the hands of everyday consumers. Her goal in starting RCOAST was to empower people to make educated decisions that will help to make our coast more resilient. 

Remote Sensing Analyst, Lauren Tango (M.S.) is a remote sensing scientist - a geomorphologist and geographer with expertise in topographic measurements and change detection, quantitative analysis, and data presentation. She utilizes a range of remote sensing technologies (airborne and terrestrial lidar, satellite imagery, photogrammetry), and field instruments (total stations, GPS and RTK) to monitor geomorphic processes. Lauren has her Masters in Remote Sensing and Fluvial Geomorphology and has worked with the U.S. Geological Survey monitoring changes to sand dunes in the Grand Canyon to inform land managers how to better preserve archaeological resources. She joined the RCOAST team to bring sound science to communities invested in coastline resilience, and promoting the health of the natural world and the humans that inhabit it. Her passion is informing data-driven decision-making by collecting, processing, and interpreting data to promote ecosystem resilience and resource protection.

Dallon Weathers

Dallon Weathers’ interest in geology began about 30 years ago pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Geology at the University of the South at Sewanee, TN. After spending a few years along the sedimentary outcrops of the Cumberland Plateau and a few more on the coast of South Carolina, he turned his focus to coastal systems and earned a Master of Science in Geology from the University of South Carolina modeling beach nourishment evolution after emplacement.

In 2004, he joined Research Planning Inc while completing his research, and later moved to New Orleans to establish an office and conduct applied geologic research in the rivers, marshes, and barrier of South Louisiana. Through working partnerships with the University of New Orleans, Mr. Weathers was introduced to the Pontchartrain Institute of Environmental Sciences.

In 2006, he joined PIES and continued research to characterize and monitor the evolution of the coastal landscape of South Louisiana. In addition to facilitating student and faculty research, Mr. Weathers was part of a partnership between PIES and the US Geological Survey on the first Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) project. He was also part of the first Louisiana Coastal Master Plan as a member of the Barrier Island Modeling Team.

After 7 years at PIES, Mr. Weathers joined The Water Institute of the Gulf in 2013 to help create the Physical Processes and Sediment Systems group. Applied research conducted with the Institute was integral to restoration planning by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Later in 2018, the lure of industry took him to help open a Louisiana base of operations for T&T Braveheart. At T&T Braveheart, Mr. Weathers honed his skills in the field of hydrographic and geophysical survey and was part of the largest maritime salvage operation in the United States that removed the capsized Golden Ray from the edge of the Brunswick Ship Channel in Georgia.

In 2020, Mr. Weathers started Delta Geo-Marine, a New Orleans based consulting firm focused on coastal geology, geophysics, and hydrography. Over the years, Mr. Weathers has lent his services to mobilize offshore and near shore survey vessels; developed models and analytic routines in geospatial applications; and provided support to conduct myriad hydrographic, geophysical, and hydrologic surveys. Delta Geo-Marine has also partnered with LUMCON and RCoast to study and monitor the evolution and depositional footprint of Neptune Pass on the East Bank of the Mississippi River near Ostrica, LA.

Most recently, Mr. Weathers has joined the R-Coast team to lead the development of streamlined processes to take raw Lidar and imagery data from UAV surveys to make high resolution orthoimagery and point clouds, and then further integrate these into a geospatial environment where the data can be leveraged to inform decisions on coastal management.

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Areas of Expertise:

• Coastal Geology and Processes
• Geospatial Modeling and Analysis
• Oceanographic Instrument Deployment
• Hydrographic and Geophysical Survey