Matthew W. Johnston

A programmer in a prior career, I use computation to understand how physical and biological processes drive population dynamics of native and invasive species using a variety of modeling and GIS techniques. I instruct undergraduate general biology II and graduate GIS/remote sensing at NSU and advise graduate students through a variety of thesis projects that are computational-focused.

I am also the Data Manager and a Research Scientist for the DEEPEND Consortium, helping to define pelagic habitat given physical ocean processes and to describe how these differing habitats may influence populations of deep pelagic fauna. I am also actively involved in DEEPEND and DoBS outreach and developed and maintain the DEEPEND website and the DOBS website. With the Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI), I am the author of and maintain the GHRI shark tracking website which is a primary outlet of outreach for the Institute. Ongoing research with GHRI focuses on modeling the movement patterns and habitat usage of pelagic sharks to determine present habitat usage and how future climate change may affect the distribution of these important apex predators.

Through all of my interests, I use data mining, manipulation, and visualization to better understand complex physical and biological processes in the ocean and on land. A goal is to distill them and make them relatable. My research has been widely published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and I frequently gives talks to a variety of audiences in academia and industry. Please visit my website here.