Award Winner

An oceanographer by training and entrepreneur by nature, Mike Morris is the president of SpectrEcology, a high-tech company that develops new products and applications for optical sensing and spectroscopy. His current work involves creating point-of-care nucleic acid-based testing devices for infection detection; deploying spectrometers on unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles for precision agriculture and aquaculture; developing miniature fiber-optic O2 sensors for medical and wearables markets; and creating ultraviolet-light sterilization products.

Morris was also the founder of Ocean Optics, in Dunedin, Florida, and its president from garage start-up through the sale to Halma in 2004. He is now a distributor for Ocean Optics and a member of its advisory board.

In his tenure at Ocean Optics, Morris has directed the development of over 2,000 new products, including spectrometers currently used on the Mars rover. He helped expand company sales from zero to an annual rate of more than $50 million and assembled a highly skilled workforce that grew from a handful of pioneers at start-up to more than 300 employees at five locations worldwide.

Morris pioneered the use of miniature fiber-optic spectrometers beginning with the introduction of the S1000 in 1992. During his tenure the company introduced an average of 1.3 new products per week, devices that enabled use of the spectrometer in laboratory, process and industrial control, environmental, space-based, and education settings. The mission was to create applications development on demand, enabling any measurement involving company absorbance, transmission, reflection, or emission of light.

Morris has nearly 30 years of experience in the design, manufacture, and marketing of technology-related products and services. He began his career as a sales representative for laboratory products supplier Fisher Scientific. Morris also spent six years as associate director of technology transfer for the NASA-sponsored Southern Technology Applications Center, a clearinghouse of resources for technology-minded entrepreneurs.

He is active on several boards, including Outstretched Hands Ministries, the academic advisory board for FIU Biomedical Engineering, and the advisory board for Accustrata.

Morris received a BS in chemical and cell biology from Rutgers University and an MS in marine science from the University of South Florida.