LINNE Industries hires new senior science advisor

LINNE Industries, which makes the PondHawk solar-powered pond aeration systems, announced Dr. Thomas R. Fisher as its new senior science advisor.  Fisher will lead the development of testing protocol to deliver measurable water quality improvements in stormwater and golf course ponds.

“Under Dr. Fisher’s guidance, we are developing the protocol and team structure to deliver measurable water quality improvement in ponds,” LINNE Industries president and PondHawk co-inventor Sandra Burton said. “As LINNE Industries looked to develop research to create measurable results from PondHawk water aeration, Tom was the first person we called.” 

“The work LINNE Industries is doing to improve water quality in stormwater ponds is an opportunity to apply my expertise in new and exciting ways.” Fisher said. “My primary interest is how land use and human activities on land influence the water quality of streams draining the land.”

Fisher has spent the better part of his career at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) researching terrestrial and aquatic systems in the basins of Atlantic estuaries, the Amazon River floodplain, and carbonate sands on coral reefs. His professional expertise focuses on atmospheric deposition, historical land use changes, stream chemistry, nutrient processing in streams and estuaries, aquatic nutrient cycling, and primary productivity.

“I first met the folks at LINNE Industries through a PondHawk customer,” Fisher said. “At the time, I was leading a team of UMCES scientists monitoring nutrient inputs and the effects of Best Management Practices on properties surrounding the Choptank estuary, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.”

“As the UMCES scientists shared nutrient updates with our engineers, the design of PondHawk systems at LINNE Industries underwent a steady evolution.” Burton said. “The information we received from Dr. Fisher and the UMCES research gave us insight on pond nutrient loads, new nutrients arriving from the watershed, and the PondHawk design changes needed to address the inputs.

“When LINNE Industries was looking to develop the new testing protocol to measure water quality improvements, it was clear, we needed Tom on our team.”

LINNE Industries will launch the new baseline water quality assessment this summer.