Micah Weltmer, Ph.D., PMP, has 25 years of leadership experience in science-based, data-driven operational planning, risk management, and decision support.
Prior to joining the Institute, Micah served 24 years as a Meteorology and Oceanography Officer in the United States Navy, retiring as a Captain in 2022. He built his career on analyzing environmental data and numerical models to generate forecasts and impact assessments to maximize operational safety and effectiveness worldwide. He has experience managing a wide variety of environmental sensing, modeling, and decision support programs with total budgets up to $120 million, including ocean survey, satellite and airborne remote sensing, autonomous maritime systems, ocean and atmospheric modeling, and decision support tools. Most recently, he served as the Chief Science & Technology Officer at the Navy’s Meteorology and Oceanography headquarters, where he managed a $300 million annual portfolio of programs to design and implement scientific and technological innovations toward improving the Navy’s suite of environmental data collection and modeling capabilities.
A career-long champion of innovation and adoption of emerging technologies, Micah initiated the U.S. Navy’s first-ever formal unmanned vehicle acquisition program; drove the establishment of the Gulf Coast Tech Bridge; directed the annual Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) on-water testing events; guided development of the Navy’s cloud-based numerical weather and ocean forecasting infrastructure; and pioneered the use of decision support tools to optimize operational planning. At the Water Institute, he helped develop the Innovation Studio, funded by EDA and LED, as well as several Climate Tech accelerator concepts funded by NOAA and Shell.
Micah received a bachelor’s degree in geosciences from Penn State University, and both a master’s degree in meteorology & physical oceanography and doctorate in physical oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. His research has focused on novel approaches to observing and understanding tidal and wave processes in nearshore and estuarine environments.