Virgil Zetterlind is director of ProtectedSeas - a U.S. based organization that empowers marine conservation through novel information systems. He joined ProtectedSeas in 2015 to help build the Navigator and Marine Monitor platforms which he leads today. 

Virgil is a leading expert in remote sensing, mobile/web mapping, and processing and visualization of spatial data. His career started with a BS in Electrical Engineering from Missouri S&T University and an officer commission with the U.S. Air Force as a Developmental Engineer. He was awarded a MS in Electrical Engineering with honors from the Air Force Institute of Technology and worked in the Air Force Research Laboratory as a system engineer for airborne sensing platforms including video cameras, radar, and laser radar. 

After the Air Force he developed image and video data information extraction software for MITRE Corporation before co-founding his own startup which focused on consumer nautical mapping applications for web and mobile devices including the first iPad models. This work led him to co-found Conserve.IO in 2010 to provide citizen science and outreach tools for marine conservation including the Whale Alert and Atlantic White Shark Sharktivity mobile apps. 

Over his career, Virgil has worked on various research and development projects for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Google Earth, National Geographic, and NASA. He is an avid scuba diver with Recreational Divemaster and Trimix certifications, a published underwater photographer, and holds a commercial aircraft pilot certificate.

 Explore Virgil's Work

• ProtectedSeas Navigator's websites:

 https://map.navigatormap.org   

https://navigatormap.org/ 

• Marine Monitor's (M2) website:

 https://m2marinemonitor.com/

• ProtectedSeas' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/protectedseas/