The AMSL Team

Chris White

Defence and Commercial Manager

Chris joined AMC Search in 2013 after more than 20 years’ service in the Royal Australian Navy. This time was highlighted by command of Australian Clearance Diving Team One, operational deployments to the Persian Gulf and Bahrain and exchange postings with the Canadian, United States and the Royal Navy. He also conducts AUV training for defence force personnel including operator and mission controller courses.  

Chris holds a Master’s Degree in Business Leadership along with numerous vocational qualifications in Training, Assessment, Leadership and Maritime Operations. 

Contact Chris: chris.white@utas.edu.au

Peter King

AMSL Facility Manager

Peter has worked in the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle space since 2009, and Maritime Engineering since 2002. His primary interests are the challenges of vehicle deployment in high-risk and dynamic environments, having operated AUVs from the Arctic Circle, to coastal Fjords, to the floating ice shelves of Antarctica. His research interests include long-range navigation, computer vision, simulation and vehicle autonomy. He holds a Bachelor on Engineering (Computer) from Memorial University and a Diploma of Electronics from the College of the North Atlantic. He is currently completing his PhD in Maritime Engineering at the University of Tasmania.

Contact Peter: peter.king@utas.edu.au

Damien Guihen 

AMSL Senior Scientist

Damien is an Autonomous Marine Systems Specialist at AMC Search and is a researcher at AMC, working on the sensing of the marine environment and developing and delivering training on the systems that help us to explore the ocean. Damien has a PhD in Physical Oceanography from the National University of Ireland, Galway, where his thesis concerned the biophysical interactions at a Norwegian coral reef ecosystem. He then moved to the British Antarctic Survey where he undertook postdoctoral research into the use of acoustic systems on autonomous platforms to map Antarctic krill distributions. Damien moved to Tasmania in 2016 to join the Autonomous Marine Systems Laboratory as a researcher with the Antarctic Gateway Partnership. He spends more time than he should on refining the processing of acoustic data generated  by the Remus and Explorer vehicles, along with writing software to support this processing.

Konrad Zurcher

AUV Research Engineer

Konrad has worked as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Engineer at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) since 2015 and in a variety of engineering positions at other companies since 1994. His interest in the maritime industry has grown from a keen interest in Naval Architecture, mechanical engineering as well as maritime history. His primary interests are in AUV operations, mission planning, data analysis, simulation, and engineering design. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Naval Architecture from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a PhD in Maritime Engineering for the University of Tasmania (UTAS). 

Isak Bowden Floyd

AUV Engineer

Over the past 5 years Isak has been principally involved in Autonomous underwater vehicles, from training to polar deployments. His interest in the ocean has grown from watersports and diver training on the coast into more heavily engineering focused applications, with strong links to AUV operation and mapping throughout the Bachelor of Ocean Engineering degree, undertaken at the Australian Maritime College. A strong interest in AUV Hydrography has been increasing over the past years with a significant portion of professional development being focused on this, with many of the intricacies of mapping the ice being the big ticket item.

Reuben Kent

Project Engineer

Reuben began his career as a timber shipwright building Victoria’s beloved “Couta” Boats.  He graduated from AMC with a Bachelor of Engineering in Naval Architecture in 2015 and comes to AMC Search with a broad background in marine engineering.  His experience covers tall ships, Navy fleets and AUV’s through to bespoke equipment design in the offshore oil and gas industry.  

Reuben joined the AMC Search AUV team in 2019 as an Autonomous Marine Systems Project Engineer.  His work involves developing and delivering AUV operator training, AUV contract work and providing engineering design services.  In 2019 the AUV team conducted over 75 AUV operations in NSW and Tasmania.  

Rowan Frost

Project Engineer

Frosty has been working with underwater vehicles for around a decade after graduating from AMC in Naval Architecture in 2009. He has being involved in multiple field campaigns over the years and has worked with a variety of vehicles through his career and is always excited to see what lies beneath the waves. Rowan has a strong interest in using AUV’s for new and novel survey’s and the passing on of his extensive knowledge and experience to trainees on AUV training courses.

Martin Filleul

AMS Operator / Technician

Marine science field operations have been Marty’s professional background for more than 20 years and what eventually led him to Autonomous Marine Systems from diving and vessel-based data collection methods. Marty holds degrees in both Marine Science and Aquaculture and has worked and trained others in Occupational Diving and Small Vessel Operations. While facilitating fieldwork for research and teaching at the Australian Maritime College and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies an increasing awareness and interest in autonomy applied to sampling in remote locations revealed an increasingly exciting world of possibilities and opportunities.

Sam Hunnibell

Engineer Supervisor

Sam is a graduate of the Australian Maritime College, obtaining a Bachelor of Engineering (Naval Architecture) before heading to work with a ship designer focusing on the design, sustainment, and upgrades of some of Australia’s largest Navy platforms. His experience with AUV’s dates back to his university days where he carried out some initial mapping within the depths of Lake St. Clair in Tasmania’s central highlands.

Sam joined the AMC Search Team as an Engineer in 2021 where his focus is on providing engineering design, compliance and consultancy services within the Autonomous Maritime System and Naval Architecture domains.

Nicola Kingdon

AUV Operator/Trainer

Nicola joined AMC Search in early 2022 after a career in the Royal Australian Navy as a Hydrographic Systems Operator. She has always been interested in what can be found on the bottom of the ocean, and through her Navy career has found herself enjoying the work of autonomous vehicles. Since joining AMC Search, Nicola has been delivering AUV operator training and AUV contract work. Whilst working full time, she is also studying a Bachelor of Spatial Science Technology (Surveying) part time.

Lucy Bauld

Project Engineer

Lucy is a Project Engineer at AMC Search working within the Defence and Autonomous Systems team. She is an Australian Maritime College graduate, completing her Bachelor of Engineering in Naval Architecture in 2015. Lucy has experience in civil engineering, small vessel design and aluminium high speed ferry design from her previous work in both Tasmania and Western Australia.  

Lucy joined the AMC Search team in 2022, focusing on engineering design and consultancy services in Naval Architecture and Autonomous Maritime Systems. 

Mark Gillespie

AMS Operator/Technician

Technology, electronics and integration has held Mark’s interest for over 30 years. Mark has a wealth of experience ranging from working as a remote area Radio Technician, to Project Management, to Broadcast Design, to Audio Visual and Systems Integration and the use of Enterprise Networks. During his career Mark has supported a number of scientific research expeditions and ROV based surveys which inspired his move to AMC Search’s Autonomous Maritime Systems (AMS) team in 2023. Mark’s broad range of experience is now being used to support the technical and operational aspects of the AMC’s AMS Laboratory’s AUVs, USVs and ROVs.

Jake Veldums

Projects and Training Coordinator

After spending 10+ years in the Royal Australian Navy, Jake joined AMC Search in 2022 as the Defence and Autonomous Systems Training and Project Co-Ordinator. Jake assists in coordinating AMC Search’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and Autonomous Surface Vessel training, projects and consultancy services.

Gabe Tooker

Project Engineer

Gabriel graduated with a bachelor of Ocean Engineering Honours from the Australian Maritime College in 2016. Upon graduating he was employed by DP World Australia with the main duties of vessel planning and commercial development. He joined Advisian in 2018 and was involved in various projects such as the Upper North Island Supply Chain Study tasked with estimating the future capacity of Auckland, Tauranga and Northport ports and the required infrastructure; vessel navigation studies; transhipment and logistics concept studies; and various mooring analysis studies.

Gabriel joined AMC Search in 2022 focusing on the hydrodynamics facilities for scale model testing and evaluations, and general consulting in the AMSL team.