Key members

---

Managing Member

At IPA, Kari Walker is responsible for business development and project management. Under her leadership, IPA delivers solutions for coastal and oceanic projects for government, industry, and academic clients worldwide. Kari is an oceanographer with twenty years of scientific and program management experience.

Kari is also the President and Founder of IntelliSense Marine, LLC. Previously, she was a Regional Manager and an Oceanographer at RPS Evans-Hamilton. Representative projects include the Metocean Design Criteria (Deep Water Measurement Program and Desktop Study, Morocco), Kitmat LNG (Metocean Buoys and Met Station, Bish Cove, BC), Fairweather Science (Metocean Buoy Program), Aquaculture Permitting Support, Port Angeles, WA. She has also served on the Board of Directors of Salish Sea Expeditions. Kari received a B.S., Oceanography, from University of Washington and an M.B.A. from the Foster School of Business of the University of Washington.

Founder and Managing Member   

Art Wright’s emphasis is on basic research in underwater acoustics related to seafloor engineering. His primary responsibilities on marine IP surveys are logistics, shipboard liaison, and management of field operations. Since 1987, he has also been the Operations Manager at Williamson & Associates, Inc. Representative projects include:

• Arctic Domain Awareness Center, Oil under Ice Tests, CRREL, Hanover, NH, 2020
• Private search for North Pacific shipwreck 2016-17
• Chung-Wa Telecom, Taiwan,  Quemoy and Matsu Cable Route, 2011-12
• Tyco Telecomms, Unity and TPE 2A Cable Route Survey, off Japan, 2008 
• Australian Government, HMAS Sydney search, off Western Australia, 2008 
• KDD Cable & Wireless, SeaMeWe 3 Cable Route survey, Singapore-Djibouti, 1997
• U.S. Government search for radioactive waste drums, California, 1990
• Oman Oil Company, Pipeline survey, Oman to India, 1994
• Lockheed search for Trident missile parts, Cape Canaveral, 1988-89

Professional affiliations include Council of American Master Mariners, Marine Technology Society and the Hydrographic Society of America.

Previously, Art was an Unlimited Ocean Master, USCG; he sailed as Chief Mate in the SL-7  M/V Capella  during the Gulf War in 1991. Prior thereto, he was a commissioned officer in the United States Navy; retired as a Captain. During his last tour he was commander of the Pacific Fleet mine forces. Earlier assignments include commanding three ships and serving on a variety of staffs, in Vietnam and as a mine warfare specialist. Art received a B. S., Naval Science, from United States Naval Academy and an M.S., Engineering Acoustics, from United States Naval Postgraduate School. He is a certified American Congress of Surveying and Mapping Hydrographer. 

Founding Member and Chief Scientist

Mike Williamson designed and built the first deep ocean marine resistivity cable burial assessment sled in 1996 and logged over 24,000 line kilometers of marine resistivity data for the marine telecommunications industry in the next ten years. Working with the US Geological Survey, the Williamson marine resistivity system was upgraded to a marine induced polarization system which was successfully deployed to find sulfides off Papua New Guinea in 2005 and 2007 and ilmenites off South Africa in 2007. In 2016, Mike launched IPA as a separate LLC in order to give induced polarization more priority and visibility.

Mike was also the founder and president of Williamson & Associates, Inc, in 1983, a marine geophysics and acoustics service firm which specialized in marine acoustic projects requiring data acquisition under unique circumstances or in difficult environments. He has served as Principal Investigator or Survey Party Chief on numerous geophysical cruises for the U. S. Navy, universities and research institutes, governmental agencies, oil and mining companies and engineering firms. Mike received a BS in Geology from University of Kentucky, an MS in Geological Oceanography from University of Washington, and was a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering at the University of Washington. He is a licensed geologist with Washington State and is a certified American Congress of Surveying and Mapping Hydrographer.  

Professional affiliations include Marine Technology Society and the Hydrographic Society of America.

Founding Member and Lead Engineering Consultant

Jeff Frank has been an Engineering Consultant for Williamson since 1999 and similarly for Induced Polarization Associates, Inc (IPA) since its formation in 2016. As an Engineering Consultant he has worked on a wide range of equipment including sidescan sonar, CBASS (marine resistivity), Redas (marine resistivity and induced polarization), deep ocean rock drills, mini-cone penetrometers and cable burial plow control systems. He was a key designer and developer of the WA-30 deep towed 30 kHz sidescan sonar, Prysmian Hydroplow control system, the Williamson mini-CPT, several deep ocean rock drill control systems, marine induced polarization cables and many operating software packages. He has extensive experience in control systems design/implementation and proficiency in the development of hardware and software for remote data acquisition and telemetry systems. Skilled in analog circuit design, he has documented success in developing project specific processing/ interface software/hardware and unique experience in acoustic transducer design and fabrication with proven success in technical training development and delivery. 

As Lead Engineering Consultant to IPA, Jeff has been instrumental in developing the Induced Polarization system, including designing the IPA towed arrays. He wrote and developed the control and processing software for the system, has overseen field trials in and around Puget Sound, and has led baseline-forming experiments in the IPA laboratory. These efforts have allowed known substance responses to be quantified for correlation with field data. During this period, he has also spearheaded improvements to the electronics and power supply of the IP system and produced the necessary methodology and procedures required. 

Previous Career: 

1995 – 1997 Western Marine Electronics, Chief Engineer. 

Oversaw design and development of acoustic, electronic, and mechanical products intended for the commercial fishing industry and military markets. Primary electronics and acoustics engineer. 

1993 – 1995 ESSCUBE Engineering, Senior Systems Engineer. 

Supported NAVAIR acoustic processing programs with processing design, functional code prototyping, simulation/modeling, and test data reduction/analysis. Supervised development of advanced processing/display software under contract to the S-3 community. 

1991 – 1993 WESMAR Defense Products Company, Director of Applications Development. 

Provided specialized engineering support to the defense division of a marine electronics manufacturer. 

1990 – 1991 Hilton Systems Incorporated, Senior Engineer. 

Provided engineering support to NAVAIR customers in non-destructive inspection equipment design/development. 

1983 – 1990 US Naval Officer. 

Served with distinction in a variety of operation and technical assignments. Qualified in the areas of Surface Warfare and Mine Countermeasures and as a Naval Instructor

Jeff received a B.S in Physics from the University of Delaware.

Research Associate

Joseph James “Jay” Radler’s emphasis is on technology development, data, system operations. He excels in analyzing large, dynamic systems. His expertise and variegated skills (e.g, mathematics, quantum mechanics, teaching, writing, programming, foreign languages, etc.) share a common core-structure. 

Previous Career:

University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Sept 2015-Mar 2019, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Chemistry

• Trained undergraduate students in laboratory safety and procedures and theoretical and technical aspects of chemistry.
• Conveyed abstract concepts from physics in the context of introductory-level chemistry courses.
• Led and advised other Graduate Teaching Assistants as a Mentor Teaching Assistant.
• Served as instructor for a First Year Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Orientation seminar.

Research Assistant, Jan 2016-Sept 2018, Xiaosong Li Group Department of Chemistry

• Developed strategies, calculation pipelines, data analysis tools, and simulation software modules.
• Troubleshot complicated assemblies of software, theoretical models, and data analysis techniques.
• Built automation pipelines for simulations, analysis, and data management.
• Analyzed large, complex data sets generated from time-resolved simulations.
• Presented proposals, methods, analyses, and conclusions in both small-group settings and public seminars.

Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory, West Lafayette, IN, May 2012-Aug 2015

Chemist, Geological Sample Processing Chemistry Operations 

• Processed soil, rock, and water samples for 36Cl analysis by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.
• Optimized sample processing, tripling sample throughput.
• Re-engineered document workflows and maintained records for the database.
• Revised safety protocols for the handling of hydrofluoric acid (HF) and other hazardous reagents.
• Brought hazardous waste handling and disposal into compliance.

Previously, Jay was a Graduate Teaching Assistant, General Chemistry Department of Chemistry, at the University of Washington. He also served as a Research Assistant for the Xiaosong Li Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington; and as a Chemist, Geological Sample Processing Chemistry Operations, at Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement (Prime) Laboratory. Jay received an A.A.S., Chemical Technology, from Ivy Tech Comm. College (with Honors), a B.S., Chemistry, Minor in Japanese Language, from Purdue University, and an M.S., Computational & Theoretical Quantum Chemistry, from University of Washington. Certifications include Programming Fundamentals (C Language) from Duke University (Coursera); and IBM Data Science Professional Certificates (Coursera). Work includes publications and poster presentations.

Education.

University of Washington, Seattle, WA: MS Computational & Theoretical Quantum Chemistry,   

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN: BS in Chemistry, Minor in Japanese Language,   

Ivy Tech Comm. College:  Lafayette, IN, Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Chemical Technology  

Consultant

Todd Stedman has several years experience developing and leading technical teams building enterprise software systems. Todd presently splits his professional time working with Induced Polarization and The Software Revolution, Inc. Prior work includes engineering and technical lead roles with Kaiser Permanent, Microsoft, Asentria, Eveo, Field Automated Communications, and Raytheon. He has also taught at the Professional and Continuing Education program, University of Washington, as a JavaScript Instructor. He holds a JD from Seattle University, MBA from UCLA, and a BSEE from the University of Washington. Todd became involved with the Induced Polarization project after becoming fascinated with the potential to apply IPA's methodologies to undersea exploration. Software areas of interest include embedded systems, operating systems, and large data.