Akkaynak, Derya

Derya Akkaynak is a mechanical engineer and oceanographer (PhD MIT & WHOI ‘14) who studies problems of imaging and vision underwater. In addition to using off-the-shelf RGB cameras for scientific data acquisition underwater, she uses hyperspectral sensors to investigate how the world appears to non-human animals. Derya has professional, technical, and scientific diving certifications and has conducted underwater fieldwork in the Bering Sea, Red Sea, Antarctica, Caribbean, Northern and Southern Pacific and Atlantic, and her native Aegean. Akkaynak is an honoree for the 2019 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in physics and engineering. She is at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.