Whitlow Au - University of Hawaii

University of Hawaii

The name of the Naval Undersea Center's Hawaii Laboratory changed many times and in 1993 the then-named Naval Ocean Systems Center's Hawaii Laboratory was closed by Congress. While the entire group had the opportunity to move to San Diego and join the Space Warfare Systems Center's program, Au had an offer to move over to the University of Hawaii's Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay to join the marine mammal research program. Au did not hesitate; he immediately took the opportunity to become a faculty member and continue echolocation and hearing research with dolphins and small whales in Hawaii. His research effort did not decline; in fact, his productivity, as evidenced in the number and breadth of publications, has accelerated. He has taken on several students and expanded work to include the acoustics of wild spotted and bottlenose dolphins echolocating through sediments in the Bahamas, the acoustics of wild spinner dolphins off of the Eastern Coast of Oahu, and singing humpback whales off of Maui. He was invited to review the biological acoustics laboratories for the Danish National Research Foundation and has been collaborating on the echolocation of harbor porpoises in the Netherlands.