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Yi Chao is the Founder and CEO of Seatrec. He pioneered the ocean thermal energy harvesting project at NASA JPL in collaboration with his co-Inventors, Jack Jones and Thomas Valdez. Additionally, Yi was the PI for the SOLO-TREC project funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the follow-on project Slocum-TREC.

As an oceanographer prone to seasickness, Yi decided to study the ocean from outer space and was a Project Scientist for the successful Aquarius Satellite Mission (a $300M NASA project that launched the first salinity satellite), where he was responsible for science, technology, and engineering implementation. Yi has worked on numerous projects ranging from ocean science, satellite oceanography, ocean modeling, and underwater technology development. Currently, he is affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles as an Adjunct Professor.

Yi holds a B.Sc. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, an M.A.in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Princeton University.