- Email: john.ragland@whoi.edu
- Location: Woods Hole, MA
- LinkedIn: john-ragland
- GitHub: john-ragland
Education
BSAuburn University, Electrical Engineering2019
- Graduated Summa Cum Laude
MSAuburn University, Electrical Engineering2020
- Thesis: Digital Simulation and Recreation of a Vacuum Tube Guitar Amp url
- Advisor: Thaddeus Roppel
- Emphasis Digital Signal Processing, Real-time Audio Processing, Physical Modeling
PhDUniversity of Washington, Electrical Engineering2024
- Thesis: Using coherent ambient sound to probe the ocean url
- Advisor: Shima Abadi
- Emphasis: Acoustic Oceanography: Ambient noise interferometry and ocean acoustic tomography
Experience
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA (2025 - present)
- Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2024 - 2025)
- Graduate Researcher, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2020 - 2024)
- Graduate Summer Researcher, Applied Research in Acoustics, Seattle, WA (2022)
Community Service
- Associate Editor - Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, AIP
- AOPE department representative - WHOI postdoctoral association, elected position
Peer Reviewed Publications
- (in prep) Long range, low frequency source localization across the Gulf Stream front using multiple bottom/surface bounce paths observed on a large aperture vertical array - Hoekstra, Colosi, Ragland, Bonnel, Park, Dzieciuch, Alford, Bellerjeau, Voet (2026)
- (in prep) Simultaneous ocean acoustic inversion and source localization for transmission across the Gulf Stream - Ragland, Colosi, Dzieciuch (2026)
- (in review) Analysis of acoustic fluctuations for 150-km, low frequency transmissions across the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of the New England Seamount chain 10.22541/essoar.15006016/v1 - Ragland, Colosi, Hoekstra, Dzieciuch, Alford, Bellerjeau (2026)
- How Do Tides Affect Underwater Acoustic Propagation: A collaborative approach to improve internal wave modelling at basin to global scales 10.5670/oceanog.2025.308 - Schönau, Hiron, Ragland, Raja, Skitka, Solano, Xu, Arbic, Buijsman, Chassignet, Coelho, Helber, Shriver, Summers, Verlinden, Wallcraft (2025)
- Characterizing wind-dependent low-frequency ambient sound with ocean observatories initiative hydrophones 10.1121/10.0039811 - Ragland, Abadi (2025)
- Receptions of Kauai Beacon transmissions by ocean observatories initiative hydrophones 10.1121/10.0038971 - Ragland, Abadi, Durofchalk, Dall'Osto, Gemba (2025)
- Using Ocean Ambient Sound to Measure Local Integrated Deep Ocean Temperature 10.1029/2024GL108943 - Ragland, Abadi, Sabra (2024)
- Exploring surface source contributions to ocean ambient noise interferometry with airgun shots 10.1121/10.0015231 - Ragland, Abadi (2022)
- An overview of ambient sound using Ocean Observatories Initiative hydrophones 10.1121/10.0009836 - Ragland, Schwock, Munson, Abadi (2022)
- Long-term noise interferometry analysis in the northeast Pacific Ocean 10.1121/10.0009232 - Ragland, Abadi, Sabra (2022)
Invited Talks
- MG&G Group, University of Washington, Seattle WA (2024)
- Navy Research Laboratory, Ocean Sciences Division, Stennis MS (2023)
- MG&G Group, University of Washington, Seattle WA (2023)
- Applied Research Laboratory - UW, Seattle WA (2022)
Awards
- ONR Postdoctoral fellowship in Acoustics (2025) - Office of Naval Research: Fellowship awarded to exceptional early-career researchers who wish to continue research in ocean acoustics or the related disciplines of undersea signal processing, marine structural acoustics and transducer materials science
- eScience postdoctoral fellowship (Sept 2024) - University of Washington, eScience Institute: Fellowship awarded to interdisciplinary researchers who are actively involved in developing and/or utilizing advanced data science tools and techniques in their research at the UW
- The Daoma and Murray Strasberg Memorial Scholarship (May 2023) - Acoustical Society of America: Awarded to exceptional graduate students in ocean acoustics with research relevant to naval applications to ocean acoustics
- ASA best student paper (Dec 2022) - Acoustical Society of America: Second place at the ASA Nashville in underwater acoustics technical committee
Conference Presentations
- Comparing Kauai Beacon receptions to simulated acoustic propagation (10.1121/10.0037361) - Ragland, Durofchalk, Dall'Osto, Abadi, Gemba (2025) - 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Analysis of very low frequency wind driven noise at Ocean Observatories Initiative hydrophones (10.1121/10.0037493) - Ragland, Phan, Abadi (2025) - 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Kauai Beacon receptions and analysis with open-access hydrophones in the North Pacific Ocean (10.1121/10.0026938) - Ragland, Durofchalk, Gemba, Dall'Osto, Abadi (2024) - 186th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Towards acoustic observations of ocean basin temperatures using the Kauai beacon and Ocean Observatories Initiative Hydrophones - Ragland, Durofchalk, Abadi, Dall'Osto, Gemba (2024) - Ocean Sciences Meeting 2024
- Detecting the Kauai source beacon with ocean observatories innitiative hydrophones (10.1121/10.0023175) - Ragland, Durofchalk, Gemba, Abadi (2023) - 185th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Using ocean ambient sound to sense arrival time fluctuations due to temperature (10.1121/10.0023334) - Ragland, Abadi (2023) - 185th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Using distributed acoustic sensing for ocean ambient sound analysis (10.1121/10.0018176) - Ragland, Douglass, Abadi (2023) - 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Towards estimating water column properties using ambient noise interferometry in the deep ocean - Ragland, Abadi (2023) - Underwater Acoustics Conference and Exposition
- Overview of distributed acoustic sensing technology and recently acquired data sets (10.1121/10.0018174) - Douglass, Ragland, Abadi (2023) - 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Comparing distributed acoustic sensing data with hydrophone recordings (10.1121/10.0018175) - Abadi, Douglass, Ragland (2023) - 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Long-term ambient noise interferometry in the NE Pacific deep ocean - Ragland, Abadi (2022) - Ocean Sciences Meeting 2022
- Overview of ambient noise research and outreach with OOI hydrophones - Ragland, Schwock, Liu, Abadi (2022) - AGU Fall Meeting 2022
- Overview of ocean ambient noise interferometry – Theory and simulation (10.1121/10.0016311) - Ragland, Abadi (2022) - 183th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Exploring surface source distributions for ocean ambient noise interferometry with airgun shots (10.1121/10.0011063) - Ragland, Abadi (2022) - 182th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- OOIPy: A Python toolbox for accessing and analyzing sata from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (10.1121/10.0007845) - Schwock, Ragland, Abadi (2021) - 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- An overview of ambient sound using OOI hydrophone network (10.1121/10.0007594) - Ragland, Schwock, Munson, Abadi (2021) - 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Long-term noise interferometry analysis in the northeast Pacific Ocean (10.1121/10.0004609) - Ragland, Abadi (2021) - 179th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Estimating ocean variables using ambient noise interferometry (10.1121/10.0007697) - Ragland, Abadi (2021) - 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Ship detection from passive underwater acoustic recordings using machine learning (10.1121/10.0007848) - Alvaro, Schwock, Ragland, Abadi (2021) - 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
Media Coverage
- Listening to the ocean to measure the impact of climate change
- OOI Science Highlights: An Overview of Ambient Sound Using OOI Hydrophones
Cruise Experience
- RC0090, 2022, 2 days - deployed mooring with two hydrophones that was recovered one week later. The goal of this deployment was to acoustically measure methane seeps in the Puget Sound.
- RR2411, 2024, 21 days - joint operation to measure deep scattering layer, and low-frequency acoustic propagation around seamounts in the North Atlantic.
- AR90, 2025, 21 days - recovered NESMA acoustic moorings in North Atlantic