Dr. Isakson received her B.S. in engineering physics and mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1992. Upon graduation, she was awarded a Hertz Foundation Fellowship and completed a master’s degree in physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. CPT Isakson served in the United States Army from 1994-1997 as a battalion operations officer. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. She has been employed at the Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas (ARL:UT) as a research scientist since 2001.

Dr. Isakson has been the principal investigator on fifteen research projects ranging from AUV-based, high-frequency sonar applications to finite element modeling for ocean acoustic propagation and scattering. Sponsors include the Office of Naval Research, the Naval Oceanographic Office and ExxonMobil. Dr. Isakson has led the ARL:UT effort on six field tests, four domestic and two international. She has participated in an additional four field tests. Currently, she is leading two projects. One project aims to map tidal forcing events in shallow water rivers and estuaries with AUV-based high-frequency sonar. The other project covers modeling and measuring the acoustic response of benthic biology. Her other research interests include finite element modeling of shallow water propagation, acoustic propagation through poro-elastic materials and inversion of reflection coefficient measurements for sediment properties. She is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and a Member and Distinguished Lecturer of the Oceanic Engineering Society. Dr. Isakson currently serves as the past-president of the ASA and on the governing board of the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

Relevant Publications

1. Isakson, M.J., Story, M.A. and Kidwell, A.N., Four-dimensional mapping of tidal features with a wide-sector, high-frequency AUV-based sonar system, presented at Ocean Sciences Meeting, AGU, Portland, OR, 12-16 Feb. 2018.
2. Isakson, M.J., Kidwell, A.N., and Story, M.A., Effects of tidal forcing in an estuarine environment on high-frequency acoustics, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 143:3,1729-1729, 2018.
3. Isakson, M.J., Piper, J.N., and McNeese, A. Measurements, metrics and modeling of normal-incidence acoustic interaction with ocean sediment. IEEE J. Ocean Eng., In Review, 2018.
4. Isakson, M.J., and Chotiros, N.P. Finite element modeling of acoustic scattering from fluid and elastic rough interfaces. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 40(2):475–484, 2015.
5. Isakson, M.J., and Chotiros, N.P. Quantifying the effects of roughness scattering on reflection coefficient measurements. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 132(6):3687-3697, 2012.