David Fissel

After completing an M.Sc. in physical oceanography at the University of British Columbia in 1975, David Fissel worked as a research oceanographer at the Institute of Ocean Sciences of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Sidney, BC. In 1977, he co-founded ASL Environmental Sciences Inc. (originally Arctic Sciences Ltd.), Canada’s largest physical oceanographic company.

Mr. Fissel has managed hundreds of oceanographic projects, involving studies of ocean currents, waves, and sea-ice in various parts of all three oceans bordering Canada as well as projects in the United States, Russia, West Africa, Kazakhstan and South America. In 1996, he founded the Product Division of ASL which sells underwater acoustic instruments on a global basis. Mr. Fissel has co-authored over 26 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and approximately 40 scientific conference papers as well as hundreds of technical reports.

Mr. Fissel is the Past-President of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) and is on the Board of Ocean Initiatives BC, the Canadian Ocean Glider Foundation and Ocean Networks Canada (Neptune Canada and Venus Ocean Observatories) at the University of Victoria, as well as a member of the Science Advisory Council for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He was a founding member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Canada (2007 to 2010), and has served as an ex-officio member of the Board of the Canadian Foundation for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences and on the Canadian National Committee for the Scientific Council on Ocean Research.

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