SAND Geophysics

Fully trained & experienced personnel

SAND’s directors are the back bone of the company and between them have over 50 years worth of experience to call upon in a range of disciplines including hydrographic surveys, AUV and ROV operations, high-resolution shallow marine geophysics and leading cross industry/academia research.

James Matthews Surveyor

James is a highly experienced Hydrographic surveyor with experience ranging from undertaking multibeam charting surveys through to managing large scale geophysical projects. James has routinely held positions as Senior Hydrographic Surveyor and Party Chief while offshore and also has experience working as a client representative. Before joining SAND James worked for DOF Subsea gaining experience in both ROV and AUV operations adding to his extensive marine survey experience, which ranges from intertidal zones to deep sea

Richard Hamilton MGeophys

Studied geophysics at the University of Southampton (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) before joining EMU Limited (later Fugro EMU Limited) in 2008. Richard has a wide range of experience from survey planning and management, vessel mobilisation and data acquisition, through to processing, interpretation and data presentation. He has specialised in all aspects of offshore renewable projects from consenting & environmental surveys through to engineering, debris & UXO clearance surveys, working on UK projects and internationally. He has also led development projects to improve UXO survey and processing methodologies and shallow water multi-channel seismics.

Dr. Mark Vardy MSci. MRes PhD

Obtained an MPhys in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Sheffield, before moving to the University of Southampton where he studied for an MRes and then a PhD in Marine Geophysics. After his PhD, he stayed on as a Research Fellow, before becoming a Principle Scientist for NERC. Mark has worked on all manner of offshore projects, from inshore infrastructure developments to large-scale offshore installations, and with clients including Shell, BP, TOTAL, De Beers, and National Grid. He specialises in the development of novel high-resolution geophysical solutions to marine near surface problems.

He was a co-inventor of the 3D Chirp decimetre-resolution 3D seismic system, has designed a multi-channel seismic streamer suitable for ultra-high-resolution full waveform inversion, and developed two specialist seismic software packages specifically designed to provide optimal qualitative and quantitative imagery from high-resolution seismic reflection data. In particular, his development of machine learning workflows to predict geotechnical properties from seismic reflection data has garnered significant interest within the marine site survey sector.

Mark also sits on the Shallow Marine Geophysics committee for EAGE, is an Associate Editor for Near Surface Geophysics, and has given invited, keynote speeches at both national and international conferences.