MISSOULA – The National Science Foundation has awarded Sunburst Sensors a $2.5 million contract to provide instruments for its studies.

 

Sunburst Sensors is owned by Mike DeGrandpre, a chemistry professor at The University of Montana, and Jim Beck, the company president.

 

DeGrandpre invented Sunburst’s Submersible Autonomous Moored Instruments (SAMIs). The instruments measure pH and the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in bodies of water. More than 100 of these oceanic instruments will be manufactured in Missoula.

 

DeGrandpre developed Sunburst Sensors in 1999 as a way to bridge his research to the private sector. Beck, a mechanical engineer, joined the company in 2005 to diversify and improve Sunburst’s product line. The company employs a lab technician, two engineers, a research scientist and an accountant.

 

DeGrandpre and his company will work with the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, a non-profit organization that represents 99 leading public and private ocean research and education institutions. Its mission is to advance research and education to promote effective ocean policies.

 

“Award of the Ocean Observatories Initiative contract to Sunburst Sensors is affirmation of the quality of our technology and is a credit to the hard work by my business partner Jim Beck and the employees at Sunburst Sensors,” DeGrandpre said. “Through this contract Sunburst Sensors will become a leading contributor to our understanding of the ocean carbon cycle and ocean acidification.”

 

Sunburst Sensors got its start in UM’s MonTEC business incubator and now has an office located on West Broadway in Missoula.

 

-UM News Service