Jyotika Virmani

Jyotika Virmani is the senior director of Planet and Environment at XPRIZE and the executive director of the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. This international competition is accelerating innovations in deep-sea robotic technologies to map the sea floor at a high resolution quickly, cheaply, and autonomously.

Virmani has more than 10 years of experience in the oceanic and atmospheric sciences, including both research and leadership positions. She joined the non-profit in 2014 as the technical director for the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE.

Before joining XPRIZE, Virmani was the associate director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography and a senior scientist at the Met Office, the United Kingdom's national weather service.

Virmani is also a producer at Runic Films, a production and entertainment company developing original properties for film, television, and the web. In her spare time she maintains a humorous and informative tropical storm blog.

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