Who We Are

The NSF ARV Team is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the overall development, funding, construction, and delivery of the Antarctic Research Vessel project. They serve as the main interface to the Vessel Integrator and, when selected, the Vessel Operator, as well as to the scientific community and general public.

GEO ARV Team

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NSF ARV Integrated Project Team (IPT)

• Kevin Porter

  Large Facilities Advisor, BFA/Large Facilities Office

• Will Engelhart

  Contracting Officer, BFA/Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support

• Jennifer Shymansky

  Contracting Officer, BFA/Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support

• Ben Klein

  Assistant General Counsel, Office of General Counsel

• Karen Pearce

  Senior Legislative Affairs Specialist, Office of Legislative and Public Affairs

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Contractors

Vessel Integrator Project Management Team (Leidos)

Currently, the acting vessel integrator is Leidos. Leidos is the prime contractor for the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Antarctic Support Contract (ASC). Working closely with the NSF, the vessel design team, and consultants; the vessel integrator project management team's responsibility is to ensure the vessel is completed in a timely manner. The vessel integrator team consists of a project director, program manager, project manager, project engineer, project science mission coordinator, and a project administrator.

Collectively, the team has over 74 years of experience in the maritime industry in addition to four masters degrees and six bachelors degrees. The team's experience includes research vessel management, construction, earned value management, risk analysis, cost estimation and acquisition management. Following successful completion of the Preliminary Design Review, NSF will solicit bids through an open competition for a Vessel Integrator to successfully carry the ARV project through final design review, construction, and delivery.

• Ethan Norris

  Project Director

  ethan.norris.contractor@usap.gov

  As the ARV Project Director, Mr. Norris ensures success of the ARV program, by aligning programmatic resources, and overseeing the overarching strategy in coordination with NSF. As Project Director, he ensures integration into the larger Company resources.

• Christopher Chuhran

  Program Manager

  christopher.chuhran.contractor@usap.gov

  As the Program Manager, Mr. Chuhran oversees and manages personnel assigned to the project controls team, and serves as primary interface between the U.S. National Science Foundation and project controls. Additionally, Mr. Chuhran is responsible for directing the overall planning, coordination, execution, and monitoring of the ARV project work.

• Hollie Anthonysz

  Project Manager

  hollie.anthonysz.contractor@usap.gov

  As Project Manager, Ms. Anthonysz is the primary lead for Control Account Managers, and is responsible for the integration of technical scope, schedule, and resources for the control accounts. Additionally, Ms. Anthonysz is responsible for planning, executing, and monitoring technical components of specific control account scope of work within the scheduled period of performance and the allocated budget.

• Ross Hein

  Project Science Mission Coordinator

  ross.hein.contractor@usap.gov

  As the Science Mission Coordinator, Mr. Hein is responsible for the proper integration of science mission systems into the design, procurement, installation, testing and delivery.

• Michelle Gahagan

  Project Engineer

  Michelle.Gahagan.contractor@usap.gov

  As the Project Engineer, Ms. Gahagan provides overall technical leadership of the ARV project. Using her experience and knowledge of the contract technical requirements, Ms. Gahagan provides direction and approvals to meet overall program objectives.

• Lisa Avila

  Project Coordinator

  lisa.avila.contractor@usap.gov

  As the Project Coordinator, Ms. Avila is responsible for the daily administrative duties related to the ARV project. These duties include meetings minutes, scheduling IPTs, and providing administrative support to all members of the ARV project team.

Design Team (Gibbs & Cox, a Leidos Company)

The Vessel Design Team, Gibbs & Cox, a Leidos Company (G&C), consists of 24 naval architects and engineers and represents the largest naval architecture and marine engineering firm in the U.S. Leading the vessel design team is a multidiscipline IPT structure consisting of two naval architects, an icebreaking specialist, a machinery engineer, an electrical engineer and a structural engineer who have over 100 years of combined experience in the maritime industry including seven degrees, one PhD, and one licensed PE. This team has also authored over 30 technical papers in their areas of expertise and are active members in professional organizations such as SNAME. G&C is committed to the success of the ARV program and to delivering the best and brightest talent from across the team.

Since G&C's inception in 1929, G&C has been devoted to providing quality support to their customers and their culture drives them to superior quality products and customer satisfaction in everything they do.

Systems Engineering (Maritime Systems Division - Leidos)

ARV Systems Engineering Team, Maritime Systems Division - Leidos, is comprised of 11 Naval Architects, Engineers, Cybersecurity, operations experts, and maritime captains all with previous maritime vessel design, construction, operations, and test experience. The Maritime Systems Division provides solutions in communications and data links, sensor processing, vessel autonomy, unmanned vessel design and construction, below and above water sensor modalities, command, and control, as well as physics and phenomenology.

The Systems Engineering Team follows proven processes defined by the Leidos enterprise common process for project execution and product realization, EngineeringEdge® NextGen (EENG). Our SE approach uses a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) model created in NoMagic Cameo System Modeler to provide a single, unambiguous dynamic description of the ARV vessel systems. The vessel model provides a complete and traceable design allowing for quick evaluation of impacts due to proposed requirements/design changes across all vessel systems. In addition to requirements analysis and system architecture development, we provide specialty engineering analysis/design of Safety, Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Analysis, and Logistics Support Planning early in the design phase to ensure final design meets NSF objectives for vessel operations.

Our team comes from an organization with proven performance in delivering maritime solutions for both defense and federal agencies and can provide resources capable of resolving any engineering problem we encounter.

ASC Project Support

The Antarctic Support Contract (ASC) Project support team oversees the day-to-day management and administrative activities of the ARV project. Additionally, the team has the overall responsibility for the development, integration and delivery of the Project Execution Plan (PEP) to the NSF. The team works with personnel experienced in science labs, vessel IT, marine operations, and safety.