Sean makes tools to help communities explore new horizons. He is the co-founder of Astraeus Ocean Systems and consults on climate technology and coastal systems.
His work spans ocean technology, climate strategy, and community building: translating dense environmental data into the kind of insight a community can actually act on.
For Island Lab he holds the engineering side: the sensors and tools, the boat and logistics, the rigging that lets the work happen at all.
Kate designs systems for extreme environments. Half the year she works as crew aboard the 77-foot schooner Amundsen with Pelagic Expeditions, sailing to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
Her work centers on systems that have to hold under pressure, shaped by years of operating in places where failure isn't an option. The discipline of polar sailing (small group, real weather, no shore) shows up in how Island Lab is run.
For Island Lab she holds the design of how it runs: the cohort, the rhythm, the shape of the days, and what gets made.
We live in Seattle. The boat lives at Shilshole. In the summers we move between the San Juans and the Gulf Islands, and increasingly between people who are paying attention to the same things we are.