PNNL

Emma Cotter is an environmental engineer in the Coastal Sciences Division. Cotter’s research aims to develop the tools necessary to monitor and understand the impacts of human interactions on the ocean. To do this, she uses a combination of ocean engineering, underwater acoustics, and data science. Before joining Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2021, she was a postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she developed new approaches to analyze data from broadband echosounders and holographic cameras used to study the mesopelagic zone of the ocean. Cotter earned her BS in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and her PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, where she worked on the development of an integrated instrumentation package for environmental monitoring at marine renewable energy sites. She also holds an affiliate faculty appointment with the University of Washington’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. 

• Environmental monitoring technologies for marine energy sites 
• Machine learning for active and passive acoustic data 
• Advancing capabilities of active acoustic sensors 
• Marine energy-powered ocean observing platforms 

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, 2019 
• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 2014  

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Postdoctoral Scholarship
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

2022

• Grear, M., McVey, J., Cotter, E., Williams, N., and Cavagnaro, R. Methods for quantifying background magnetic fields at a marine energy site. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. doi:10.3390/jmse10050687

2021

• Cotter, E., Cavagnaro, R., Copping, A., and Geerlofs, S. (2021). Powering negative-emissions technologies with marine renewable energy. IEEE/MTS Oceans.
• Cotter, E., Bassett, C., and Lavery, A. (2021). Classification of broadband target spectra in the mesopelagic using physics-informed machine learning. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. doi:10.1121/10.0005114
• Cotter, E., Fischell, E., and Lavery, A. (2021). Methods for computationally efficient processing of in situ, underwater digital holograms. Limnology and Oceanography Methods. doi:10.1002/lom3.10438
• Cotter, E., Bassett, C., and Lavery, A. (2021). Interpretation of mesopelagic shipboard volume backscattering using in situ target strength measurements and echo-counting techniques. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters. doi:10.1121/10.0003940

2020

• Cotter, E., and Polagye B. (2020). Detection and classification capabilities of two multibeam sonars. Limnology and Oceanography Methods. doi:10.1002/lom3.10393
• Bassett, C., Lavery, A., Stanton, T, and Cotter, E. (2020). Frequency- and depth-dependent target strength measurements of individual mesopelagic scatterers. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters. doi:10.1121/10.0001745
• Polagye, B., Joslin, J., Murphy, P., Cotter, E., Scott, M., Gibbs, P., Bassett, C., and Stewart, A. (2020). Adaptable monitoring package development and deployment: Lessons learned for integrated instrumentation at marine energy sites. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. doi: 10.3390/jmse8080553

• Cotter, E. and Polagye B. (2020). Automatic classification of fauna in a tidal channel using a multibeam sonar. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-19-0222.1

2019

• Cotter, E., Murphy, P., Bassett, C., Williamson, B., and Polagye, B. (2019). Acoustic characterization of sensors used for marine environmental monitoring. Marine Pollution Bulletin. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.04.079

2017

• Cotter, E., Murphy, P., Bassett, C., Williamson, B., and Polagye, B. (2019). Acoustic characterization of sensors used for marine environmental monitoring. Marine Pollution Bulletin. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.04.079
• Cotter, E., Murphy, P., and Polagye, B. (2017). Benchmarking sensor fusion capabilities of an integrated instrumentation package. International Journal of Marine Energy. doi: 10.1016/j.ijome.2017.09.003