Dr. Jules Jaffe

Dr. Jules Jaffe, Researcher Emeritus at Scripps Institute of Oceanography(SIO), is an internationally recognized expert in developing a variety of instruments to study oceanic biota-plants and animals—and the currents that push them around. Jaffe came to SIO in 1988 where he created a program resulting in the development of more than 30 systems that sense and image both underwater biota and the sea floor using light, sound, and underwater robots. Jaffe received his PhD from UC Berkeley working in cryo-electron microscopy, and after spending several years in Silicon Valley took a position at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. There, he helped to design the video system that was used to discover the submerged Titanic. In a 2002 article he described light sheet microscopy that was cited by Nature Magazine as a “milestone in microscopy”. Jaffe’s robots are also in the permanent collection of the London Science Museum’s exhibit on autonomous sensing of land, air, and sea. Jaffe has been an expert consultant on numerous television and radio programs to explain to the public the difficulties of searching for lost assets such as the Malaysian Jetliner, and most recently, the lost Trident submersible. He is funded by the Office of Naval Research, The National Science Foundation, and the Schmidt Family Foundation through the Schmidt Marine Technology Partners initiative. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. Jaffe is also a furniture designer and builder and has won both local and international awards for his work.