GMGI and MITRE partner to build Living Ocean Atlas for marine biodiversity. * 2 October 2026 * Edited By: Ed Freeman Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute (GMGI) is partnering with MITRE in its effort to build a first-of-its-kind Living Ocean Atlas, one that can show where marine life is now and predict how it will change, a concept GMGI describes as "Google Maps for the ocean." Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute (GMGI) scientists collect ocean samples at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off Massachusetts. (Credit: GMGI) The two organizations have signed a research agreement to jointly develop The Virtual Living Ocean. It will combine years of environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling by GMGI, a nonprofit based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, that addresses challenges facing oceans, human health, and the environment through innovative scientific research and education, with MITRE's expertise in ocean technology and large-scale data systems. MITRE is a nonprofit headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia, which operates federally funded research centers for the US government. Its BlueTech Lab in Bedford researches ocean technology, including autonomous underwater vehicles, underwater acoustics, and systems engineering and integration to enable systems to better understand the world's oceans. The Virtual Living Ocean's foundation is the Living Ocean Atlas, a database combining eDNA data with physical and chemical ocean data, including temperature, pH, and satellite imagery. GMGI has begun building the Atlas in an area it has sampled seasonally for years at Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary in the North Atlantic Ocean and other coastal sites. With The Virtual Living Ocean, the plan is to deepen these studies and expand them to other regions. To collect eDNA, researchers take samples of ocean water and test them for genetic material that fish and other marine organisms shed into their surroundings, such as skin cells, scales, and waste, revealing which species have been present without needing to see or catch them. Recent advances studying genetic material through genomic testing and artificial intelligence now make it possible to combine that data at the scale required to build a living model of an ecosystem. Designed for public and scientific use, potential applications of The Virtual Living Ocean include fisheries management, resilience and conservation planning, early detection of invasive species, biomedical research, and more. Once complete, it will also help to visualize ocean biodiversity, animal migration, and other changes over time in order to predict significant ocean trends with weather, human activity, and the overall changing ecosystem. "Several technologies are converging at once, environmental DNA sampling, genomic sequencing and artificial intelligence, that together can help make sense of a system as complex as ocean life," said GMGI's Chief Scientific Officer Rick Horwitz, who based The Virtual Living Ocean concept for GMGI on data and cell science research he did previously at the University of Virginia and the Allen Institute for Cell Science in Seattle. "A lot of researchers are collecting ocean data right now, but most of it stays siloed and disconnected. This only works as a coordinated effort, and we're actively looking for more partners and collaborators who want to help build a resource that shows not just where the ocean stands today, but where it's headed." When GMGI approached MITRE to partner on The Virtual Living Ocean, Nick Rotker, MITRE's Chief BlueTech Strategist, was intrigued. MITRE's federal sponsors have identified eDNA as "a potentially powerful tool, but there was a lack of infrastructure and capabilities out there," said Rotker. He said future research will depend on this kind of eDNA-based regional mapping. "Increasing our understanding of what is going on in the ocean is the goal to enable this broader vision." GMGI research scientist Matt Harke has spent several years tracking seasonal changes in ocean biodiversity using eDNA at Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary, and research scientist Tim O'Donnell has studied where and when commercially important fish species are found, and how offshore wind construction affects their populations. Their work, along with that of other GMGI scientists, is what The Virtual Living Ocean is designed to bring together into one coordinated system. "I always thought of eDNA as a tool to answer one specific question at a time," said O'Donnell. "But the more research we've done across New England, the more I've realized those individual projects can be combined and applied at a much bigger scale. The Virtual Living Ocean is what happens when you connect all of that work together. You start being able to answer questions you never set out to ask in the first place." To create The Virtual Living Ocean, MITRE brings experience with system architecture, data analysis, visualizations, simulation, and digital twins, virtual models that mirror a real-world system and update in real time as new data comes in. The company has been working with AI-giant NVIDIA for several years now. Rotker said MITRE has been building out "a high fidelity, physics based, undersea maritime digital twin environment" that will be critical to The Virtual Living Ocean. The Virtual Living Ocean's success will depend on the participation of many partners, studying and sampling the ocean all over the region. One aspect that MITRE has developed through grant funding from Mass Tech Collaborative is the utilization of "Blue IVI Network," an unclassified, secure network that allows partners to share data, as it would for The Virtual Living Ocean. So far, about 11 institutions are part of the network including academic, research, and defense organizations. "To build an effective atlas and visualization capability, you need access to all the different pieces of data," said Rotker. "A single, connected network that provides all the needed data and information is an important piece to make this accessible."

Jonathan Moneymaker joins MITRE board of trustees. * Jonathan Moneymaker built BlueHalo to about $1 billion in revenue before its $4.1 billion sale to AeroVironment * He previously led Altamira Technologies and Boeing's intelligence systems group * Moneymaker chairs the boards of LeoLabs and Kongsberg's U.S. operations Jonathan Moneymaker, a defense and national security executive and former BlueHalo CEO, has been elected to MITRE's board of trustees. Who is Jonathan Moneymaker? Moneymaker, a previous Wash100 Award winner, led BlueHalo as its founding CEO and helped grow the defense technology company from an early-stage venture into a business generating about $1 billion in revenue, MITRE said Wednesday. AeroVironment acquired BlueHalo in 2025 for $4.1 billion. Before BlueHalo, the national security and space technology professional served as president of Altamira Technologies and general manager of Boeing's intelligence systems group. Moneymaker, a previous Wash100 Award winner, led BlueHalo as its founding CEO and helped grow the defense technology company from an early-stage venture into a business generating about $1 billion in revenue. AeroVironment acquired BlueHalo in 2025 for $4.1 billion. Before BlueHalo, the national security and space technology professional served as president of Altamira Technologies and general manager of Boeing's intelligence systems group. His appointment follows MITRE's addition of national security and cybersecurity executive Samantha Ravich to its board in May. In February, the organization named Christopher Land, former general counsel of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary to its board of trustees. Which boards does Moneymaker serve on? Moneymaker is a senior adviser to Blackstone and chairs the U.S. board of Kongsberg, a Norway-based defense systems provider. LeoLabs, a space domain awareness and missile defense company, named him chairman of its board in May. Attalon, a provider of precision optics, laser systems and coatings, added him to its board in June. He also serves on the board of U.K.-based maritime technology company Kraken Technology Group and on the advisory boards of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps. MITRE president and CEO Mark Peters, a two-time Wash100 awardee, said Moneymaker's national security and technology experience will add to MITRE's work with the government on complex systems and missions.

George Mason to establish Virginia Quantum Hub. September 22, 2026 Press play to listen to this content Sept. 22, 2026 - With support from a $3.7 million GO Virginia grant, George Mason University will establish the Virginia Quantum Hub (VQH) - an inclusive quantum ecosystem, built by public-private partnerships, that generates intellectual property across research and technology, attracts capital investments, trains a highly skilled workforce, and addresses global innovation needs, from health and logistics to national security and energy sectors. A George Mason physics PhD student uses a microscope to probe nanoelectronic devices. The university launched the first master's degree in quantum science and engineering in the commonwealth earlier this year. Photo credit: George Mason University. "The Virginia Quantum Hub at George Mason positions the Commonwealth of Virginia at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology that will drive investment and economic opportunity in the decades to come," said Governor Abigail Spanberger. "As home to the first open-architecture quantum computing system in the National Capital Region, this is exactly the kind of public-private partnership that keeps Virginia first. The collaboration among higher education, GO Virginia, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), and many other critical public and private partners also represents game-changing capacity building for our innovation ecosystem." To scale partnerships already underway, George Mason has been approved for the GO Virginia grant, pending final award, to expand K-12 education and employer training programs, technical infrastructure deployment, lab buildout, and collaborative partnership operations. In addition to current research investments, laboratories, and K-12 and higher education programs and training, George Mason partnered with Oxford, England-based TreQ to bring the first open-architecture quantum computing system to the state. TreQ has completed the system design and will deploy and operate the built-to-evolve quantum computing infrastructure, collaborating with George Mason to connect Virginia and the region with companies and innovators across the global quantum technology ecosystem. "George Mason is not waiting for the quantum future - we are building it, responsibly and accessibly, with industry and government. By anchoring the Virginia Quantum Hub here, we are turning the commonwealth's research strength and our region's talent into jobs, new businesses, and opportunity for real change and impact," said George Mason President Gregory Washington. "We are building a quantum ecosystem for the nation, which is open to the world. With the catalytic help from the GO Virginia grant, this is how a public university helps an entire region lead the future." With the new VQH, George Mason will organize a fast-moving ecosystem around Northern Virginia's distinctive combination of assets - federal demand, defense and cybersecurity, cloud and data infrastructure, advanced computing, industry, research universities, and deep technical talent - to help drive the developing future of quantum. "This hub provides access to the hardware and advanced research to empower a workforce to fuel the quantum economy," said College of Science Dean Cody Edwards, who will deliver a keynote at Thursday's Quantum World Congress. "We start with bold solutions to create a better world for everyone - not a search for quantum-shaped answers. Strong ecosystems don't depend on any one dominant part; their strength comes from the interactions among talent, infrastructure, capital, research, industry, and government." "At the College of Engineering and Computing, quantum is not a single discipline - it is where computing, engineering, and science converge," said Ken Ball, dean of George Mason's College of Engineering and Computing. "Our strength lies in preparing students and researchers to work across that entire continuum, from quantum algorithms and software to the systems and technologies that make quantum computing possible while we prepare our graduates for the workforce of the future." George Mason will work with founding partners and strategic investors - including the VIPC, Connected DMV, TreQ, Leidos, Aliro Quantum, Boeing, Booz Allen, MITRE, IonQ, Marymount University, Northern Virginia Community College, and others to be announced - to deliver on three reinforcing pillars: * Open-architecture quantum hardware and shared infrastructure: Dual-use open infrastructure operated by George Mason - a cryogenic lab, a quantum optics facility, and one of the only TreQ-designed open-architecture quantum computers in the United States - for technology innovation. * World-class quantum workforce programs: A four-tier pipeline including middle school, high school, and community-college partner programs, quantum-related professional education, internships, and a new master's degree program with hands-on access to the accessible hardware. With 80 to 85% of George Mason graduates staying to work in Virginia and the region, this talent pipeline is positioned to meet the region's workforce needs both now and as they expand in the future. * Collaborative technology innovation: An industry-government-academia partnership program that builds critical educational programs, drives collaborative technology development, and coordinates the growth of Virginia's quantum ecosystem. "The quantum future of the United States requires we empower our citizens, no matter their backgrounds, with the skills needed to lead in the growth of this exciting technology. The VQH accomplishes this by empowering Virginians with a unique hands-on quantum technology training program, de-risking innovation by providing key high-cost infrastructure to the region and working with partners to make Virginia the destination for transformative quantum companies looking to grow," said Patrick Vora, executive director of George Mason's Quantum Science and Engineering Center (QSEC). "The Virginia Quantum Hub gives us an opportunity to move beyond simply accessing cloud-based, black-box quantum computers and instead open the box to study and innovate at deeper layers of the quantum computing stack," said Weiwen Jiang, QSEC's codirector. "With open-architecture hardware and shared research infrastructure, our faculty, students, and industry partners can work across the full quantum stack, from applications and software to systems, control, and devices. This kind of infrastructure is essential for training the next generation of quantum engineers and advancing research toward practical quantum applications." Several of George Mason's partners weighed in on this opportunity and moment for the state: "VIPC is proud to be a founding partner and strategic investor in the Virginia Quantum Hub. Built through public-private partnership, VQH will help grow Virginia's innovation ecosystem by accelerating research commercialization, growing next-generation talent, and catalyzing company attraction and industry investment in the commonwealth," said VIPC President and CEO Joe Benevento. "TreQ is grateful for George Mason's trust and partnership in building this foundational infrastructure for Virginia's quantum ecosystem. This region brings together digital infrastructure, national security, research, talent, and the technology industry in a way few places can. That combination is shaping the frontier of computing," said TreQ CEO and Founder Mandy Birch. "The Greater Washington region has the computer infrastructure, the research base, and the security-cleared talent that quantum companies need. The Virginia Quantum Hub adds a critical missing piece: Open hardware companies can test on today, paired with a pipeline that keeps four out of five graduates here. For frontier technology companies deciding where to build and scale, the case for Northern Virginia just got stronger," said George D. Thomas, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. The new Virginia Quantum Hub builds on eight years of investment through George Mason's QSEC, where 24 faculty across seven departments and several colleges have built the university's research and education foundation in quantum. A priority within George Mason's Grand Challenge Initiative, George Mason's Quantum Leap project is research backed by a new $2.4 million catalyst investment, with six new postdoctoral positions and three new faculty positions. The university recently launched Virginia's first interdisciplinary master's degree in quantum science and engineering and signed an MOU with two of Korea's leading quantum organizations, extending the hub's reach to a strong global quantum marketplace.