Matt Horn, Ph.D. ’11, is a Business Unit Lead for Tetra Tech WTR’s RPS Ocean Science (formerly ASA) in South Kingstown, RI. He manages a team of expert scientists, engineers, and technical specialists who address questions about the potential environmental effects of large-scale energy and infrastructure projects, including oil and gas, deepwater ports, and renewables. His team also evaluates hazardous cargo transportation and assists with emergency response and preparedness worldwide. They develop and maintain computational spill modeling tools to determine where released substances may be transported, how they will behave in the environment, and what effects they may have.
Working with industry, government, stakeholders, and Indigenous communities, Matt and his team specialize in providing impartial science and effectively communicating it to enable regulators to make informed decisions. Recently, Matt has testified in hearings and court proceedings in Alaska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin regarding the hazards of pipeline and facility construction and operation. He will soon travel to Guyana to work with local regulators, stakeholders, and the public to discuss the effects of offshore oil and gas exploration and development.
“My experience at GSO was non-traditional and highly interdisciplinary. I began my studies focusing on field-based measurements of air-sea gas exchange under high-wind conditions, spending many months in stormy seas. I then transitioned to a lab-based dissertation in paleoceanographic biogeochemistry, where I grew monocultures of Arctic diatoms, sampled nutrients, cleaned geologic cores, measured nitrogen isotopes with mass spectrometry, and inferred past climate and oceanographic processes.
Along the way, I served as a T.A. for Dr. Pilson’s Chemical Oceanography course (OCG 521) and the group-taught MATLAB Modeling class (OCG 506). I was also a research diver and SCUBA instructor, worked on the plankton trawl, assisted at MERL, launched weather balloons, served as an outreach scientist for the Metcalf Institute, and guest lectured for several ocean and environmental courses. This breadth of experiences helped me land my job and allows me to connect many different pieces into coherent scientific narratives. I am forever grateful to the incredibly supportive professors, staff, and administration for all they did for me and other students.”