Way back in 1990 I got a Ph.D. in Physical Geography from Uppsala University, Sweden. My field was geomorphology and under-water mapping, studying shoreline changes since the ice age. I was principal research engineer onboard the research vessel Akusta, a 22 feet speed boat equipped for marine geological field work with side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler. Even before that I invented the SediMeter, an instrument for measuring sedimentation and erosion.

In 1989 I took R/V Akusta on a scientific expedition to Surtsey, Iceland. In 1991 I received the Linnaeus Prize, given to explorers, from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala.

Just after the end of the Cold War I worked as geographer in the Baltic Sea Environment program, televised live to 15 countries across the old Iron Curtain. As coordinator of UGIS, University GIS Network, I helped found 4 GIS labs in the former Soviet Union.

In 1990 I presented the Captured Ice Shelf-hypothesis, which explains several enigmas of the Ice Age, and recently I have continued publishing on the subject. I also made the GIS-based decision support system HazMit, for natural-hazard mitigation, used by the government of Nicaragua.

My quest for first-hand knowledge on geography has made me a scuba diver, a single-handed sailor, and a motorized paraglider pilot. My field research has taken me to Europe, Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.

Some achievements may sound more impressive than they actually were, such as chairman of the Geographic Society of Uppsala, and CEO of Central Office for Environmental Planning, Inc., in Sweden. Of much more substance was my role as partner in AB Hydroconsult, and the development of instruments in Erlingsson Sub-Aquatic Surveys, now taken over by Lindorm, Inc., in the US. Various geographic research tasks have brought me to all countries surrounding Sweden, Iceland, Egypt, Bahamas, B.W.I., Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

You may also find me teaching at Barry University, Miami, occasionally, or at meetings with the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce, SACC-Florida, or the Coastal Education & Research Foundation. Most likely, though, you will find me somewhere in the nearshore environment of southernmost Florida.

Want more info? See From the pen of Ulf Erlingsson and Ulf Erlingsson brief CV page.

Flying paramotor over the volcanic chain in Nicaragua

R/V Akusta off Surtsey, in front of Vestmannaeyar and Iceland

Ulf Erlingsson, PhD