Brief Bio: Michael is and has been since the early 80s US Vice-president of Mingan Island Cetacean Study-MICS and its long-term study of baleen whales in particular the blue whale.  As an Associate Professor J. Michael Williamson has been active in education and research for over 45 years. He founded the NSF funded WhaleNet in 1992 to excite students about math, science, the environment, and technology (STEM). WhaleNet was invited to exhibit in Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and in the US Pavilion at the World Expo in Lisbon, Portugal.   Williamson was an Associate Professor of Science at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts 1988-2008, and is a Scientist in Residence at St. Mary’s Anglican Girls School in Perth, Western Australia where he teaches and advises on marine science education and research methodology (2000-2019).  He was also a pioneer in Massachusetts whale research as the founder and director of the Pelagic Systems Research & Massachusetts Whale Watch which began researching whales in the Gulf of Maine in 1976.

Williamson’s memberships have included the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, the Education Advisory Committee for the Sustainable Seas Expedition (NOAA & National Geographic Society), the Society of Marine Mammalogy, the Marine Technology Society, the Massachusetts Marine Educators, and the National Science Teachers Association.  He is also on the Boards of Director of the National Museum of Education and the South Carolina Marine Education  Association

Michael Williamson is a member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, a non-profit membership society of more than 60,000 scientists and engineers who were elected to the Society because of their research achievements or potential.