J.P. Walsh joined URI in 2018 and is the Director of the Coastal Resources Center and a Professor in the Graduate School of Oceaonography at the University of Rhode Island. He is a geological oceanographer with over 20 years of experience in coastal and ocean research. Over the 14 years prior, he was a Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at East Carolina University and Program Head for Coastal Processes at the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute. Walsh\u2019s research focuses on seafloor and shoreline processes, characteristics and related phenomena, such as storm-driven seabed dynamics. Consequently, his expertise is pertinent to a variety of ORE matters. He uses a combination of sediment properties, oceanographic measurements, geophysical mapping methods and computer analyses to understand the processes affecting the coast and ocean. Over the last decade, he has spearheaded research efforts to evaluate sand resources offshore of North Carolina as well as coastal hazards and ecosystems changes. Walsh has been involved in oceanographic investigations around the world including the U.S. East Coast, California, Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Antarctica. In 2017, Walsh was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Universit\u00e9 de Bordeaux, France. Walsh holds a doctorate in oceanography from the University of Washington, a master of science in marine environmental science from Stony Brook University, and a bachelor\u2019s degree in geology from Colgate University. He conducted post-doctoral research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.<\/p>\n