DAN Speakers
Francois Burman, PrEng, MSc
is the Vice President of Safety Services at DAN. He is responsible for all of DAN’s safety and accident-prevention initiatives as well as the recompression chamber network. He has traveled around the world to conduct safety assessments at facilities used to treat injured divers and has written two books: The Risk Assessment Guide for Dive Operators and Professionals, and The Risk Assessment Guide for Recompression Facilities.
Jim Gunderson
is a member of the Safety Services team and Director of Training at DAN. Jim’s diving career began in 1986 in his hometown of Casper, Wyoming. He holds degrees in marine science from the University of Hawaii at Hilo and in psychology from the University of Wyoming. He holds scuba certifications from PADI and NAUI and has an inactive AAUS rating. Jim is a NAUI Course Director Trainer and a DAN Examiner.
Matias Nochetto, MD
is the Vice President of Medical Services at DAN, where he has worked since 2006. He is co-director of the DAN-UHMS continuing medical education program and a faculty member of several national and international diving medicine courses and programs. He became a dive instructor (1999) during medical school, which led him to complete a three-year clinical and research fellowship in hyperbaric and diving medicine to combine the two passions.
Contact: Ask a Medic
Camilo Saraiva, MD, MBA
is the Director of Medical Services at DAN. He is board certified in radiation oncology and hyperbaric medicine and is a former director of the Brazilian Hyperbaric Medical Society. Dr. Saraiva is a member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and the American College of Healthcare Executives. A former cave diver, he has been a PADI divemaster since 2000.
Contact: Ask a Medic
Frauke Tillmans, PhD
is the Research Director at DAN. She has a degree in human biology and a PhD. in oxidative stress, a condition associated with acute diving injuries. Dr. Tillmans is an experienced public safety diver, scientific diver, and dive safety officer. She has worked as a researcher in global collaborative projects focused on decompression stress, inert gas narcosis, and oxygen toxicity and was employed by the German Navy before she began working at DAN in 2019.
Christine Tamburri
is the Risk Mitigation Coordinator at DAN. An avid cave diver, she graduated from Penn State University in 2020. After deciding that a full-time job in the dive industry was her calling, she became a summer intern at DAN. Later that year, she was hired into her current role where she designs risk assessment tools for dive operators and professionals, develops e-learning courses, and assists first aid instructors worldwide.
Guest Speakers
Michael Gernhardt, PhD
is a former NASA astronaut and professional deep-sea diver currently serving on the DAN Board of Directors. Gernhardt holds a B.S. in Physics, and M.S. and PhD in Bioengineering. While at NASA for nearly 30 years, Gernhardt logged over 43 days in space, with a combined total of more than 23 hours of spacewalks. He is also the founder of Oceaneering Space Systems, which has provided NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense with space flight hardware systems and equipment for more than 35 years.
Michael Lang, PhD
is an expert consultant and international lecturer with extensive experience training scientific, recreational and commercial divers. He holds a degree in Marine Biology and a PhD in Environmental Physiology. The recipient of multiple awards and honors as well as induction into the Diving Hall of Fame, Lang continues to work in the development and use of new technologies for working safely underwater in extreme and remote environments. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Divers Alert Network.