Dr. Frauke Tillmans
DAN Research Director
Dr. Tillmans holds a degree in Neuroscience, and a PhD in Human Biology from the University of Ulm, Germany. She oversees research initiatives in diving injury and fatality monitoring, population health, and diving physiology including acute diving injuries as well as long-term health effects of extreme exposures. She is an avid diver, dive safety officer, and dive instructor. Her experience spans recreational, technical, rebreather, scientific, and public safety diving. Throughout her scientific career she has participated in numerous projects covering a variety of medical aspects in recreational, professional, and military diving. Since leaving a position at the German Naval Medical Institute in 2019 to relocate to the United States, she has become DAN’s point of contact for global scientific collaborations and is in charge of DAN’s research grant program and STEM-focused internship program, inspiring young scientists and prospective physicians to pursue a career in diving and hyperbaric medicine. Dr. Tillmans is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a visiting scientist at the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Emmanuel Dugrenot
Senior Researcher
After completing a master’s degree in molecular biology, Dr. Dugrenot worked as a dive instructor, specializing in technical and rebreather diving and earning an instructor trainer certification. Around that time he also created and ran a company to develop improved decompression procedures, working with engineers, mathematicians, and biologists. After a few years working full time in the dive industry, Dr. Dugrenot completed a PhD in Physiology at the University of Western Brittany (France) on genetic resistance to decompression sickness. It was only natural that he joined DAN in November 2022 to continue working on divers’ safety.
Dr. Dugrenot is also a visiting researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the ORPHY laboratory at the University of Western Brittany.
Cat Harris
Research Associate Injury Monitoring
Before joining DAN in 2021, Cat was a scientific diver, aquarist and educator. Originally from Michigan, Cat began her scuba journey in Hawaii, completing the majority of her training through the University of Hawaii at Manoa and applied her skills as a Research Assistant with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As an avid diver and educator, Cat has given talks with The Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Black in Marine Science (BIMS), Black Women in Ecology and Evolutionary Marine Science (BWEEMS) and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (NABS). She is a member of the executive board of NABS as well as Women’s Aquatic Network (WAN) and has volunteered on several maritime archeology expeditions and scientific surveys. With over 1000 dives and professional and technical diver certifications, Cat uses her skills to focus on diving related injuries and fatalities with the Research team at DAN as she interprets patterns in diver behavior and the nature of each accident. She aims to make educated suggestions for training and exploration so that diving can be safer and more accessible for everyone.
Grant Dong
Research Associate
Grant Dong is an avid cave and technical diver who got his start in diving in 2018. He became mesmerized by the aquatic world while on a family trip to Perth. Since then, he graduated from the University of Maryland in 2021 with a degree in Physiology and Neurobiology. As a diver, he has pursued his aspirations of diving exploration by studying how underwater habitats can be used to aid in decompression. Grant has also been working to understand how diving affects diver’s neurological function and heart health by developing new techniques in underwater physiological measurement. In addition, Grant is pursuing studies designed to determine the relationship between bubble formation and onset of symptoms in divers suffering from decompression sickness in Cozumel.
Rhiannon Brenner
Research Associate
Rhiannon Brenner graduated from the University of North Carolina in May of 2021 with an Bachelors Degree in Biological Anthropology and minors in International Studies and Environmental Science. She has been diving since 16 years old, and continued working her way through training, becoming a Divemaster in 2020 and a tech diver in 2022. Rhiannon has a specialized interest in the variation that exists within underwater physiology and has been working on studies such as DAN’s New Bubble study in an attempt to narrow down possible physiological contributors to increased decompression stress.