John Potter

Prof. John R. Potter has a Joint Honours Maths and Physics BSc. and a PhD. in Glaciology and Oceanography from Cambridge. He spent about a year in the Antarctic and was awarded the Polar Medal by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988. Prof. Potter then switched to underwater acoustics, working for NATO in Italy until 1991, when he sailed across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal to San Diego. He worked at Scripps Institution of Oceanography for a few years on Ambient Noise Imaging and marine mammal acoustics. In 1995 he sailed across the Pacific and on to Singapore where he founded the Acoustic Research Laboratory (ARL) and co-founded the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) in NUS. John headed the ARL and was an Associate Director of the TMSI for 12 years, working on passive acoustic imaging, marine mammal acoustics, autonomous sensing and underwater communications. In 2004 he took a ‘Seabbatical’ with his family, circumnavigating the Indian Ocean by sailboat on a sponsored voyage of research, public outreach, and education with the aim of drawing attention to our failed stewardship of the ocean. In 2007 he returned to Italy, first as a consultant and then as project leader at the NATO CMRE on underwater communication. He served as a Principle Strategic Development Officer at CMRE 2014-2018, before leaving to work on his boat in New Zealand and sail. In 2019 he moved to Norway and is now a full Professor at NTNU where he works on marine mammals and Distributed Acoustic Sensing. Prof. Potter is a Fellow of the IEEE and MTS, IEEE OES Distinguished Lecturer, Associate Editor for JOE and JASA, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer and an International Fellow of the Explorer’s Club, among other things. It is no longer true that he neither owns nor operates a television.