Rochelle Wigley

Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center
Jere A. Chase Ocean Engineering Lab
24 Colovos Road
Durham, New Hampshire 03824

Rochelle Wigley has a mixed hard rock / soft rock background with an M.S. in Igneous Geochemistry (focusing on dolerite dyke swarms) and a Ph.D. in sedimentology/sediment chemistry, where she integrated geochemistry and geochronology into marine sequence stratigraphic studies of a condensed sediment record in order to improve the understanding of continental shelf evolution along the western margin of southern Africa. Phosphorites and glauconite have remained as a research interest where these marine authigenic minerals are increasingly the focus of offshore mineral exploration programs. 

Dr. Wigley first came to CCOM in 2007 as a GEBCO scholar. After finishing the GEBCO program, she returned to South Africa where she concentrated on understanding the needs and requirements of all end-users within the South African marine sectors as they developed a plan for a national offshore mapping program. This led to an interest in deep ocean bathymetry and its uses. 

Dr. Wigley is currently Project Director for all Nippon Foundation / GEBCO projects at the University of New Hampshire. She oversees all administrative and management issues related to the Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Postgraduate Certificate in Ocean Bathymetry training program the Center, mentoring the current students and maintaining the international network of program alumni. Dr Wigley has been project director for the Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation project since 2012―a multination project whose aim is to assemble, collate, archive and publish all publically-available bathymetric data from all available sources within the Indian Ocean community, utilizing the networks of GEBCO members and scholars.