The Team

Sarah Hancock

Sarah leads the team at Seiche Training and oversees all its UK and international activities. In her five years running the company, she’s expanded the range of courses on offer and is continually exploring new partnerships and opportunities in the marine sector.

Previously, Sarah worked at the RAW Group, an environmental contamination company based in Exeter, in its Environmental Science group. She graduated from Plymouth University with a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences.

Nick Duthie

Nick Duthie delivers our PAM Level 1 courses and has 21 years’ experience as a Passive Acoustic Monitoring Technician, MMO and Noise Monitoring Technician.

He has in-depth knowledge throughout PAMGuard’s development and use in real time monitoring on a wide variety of vessels and spent the past two decades working as a freelance PAM Technician.

Nick’s current role is a Senior Marine Scientist in the Bioscience Team at Seiche.

Lorenzo Scala

Lorenzo Scala delivers our PAM Level 1 and Level 2 courses. He is a senior marine scientist in the Bioscience group at Seiche with 15 years of expertise in marine mammal bioacoustics, monitoring and underwater noise measurements projects. Lorenzo provides technical support on Seiche monitoring systems to offshore consultants, and leads project operations in the field. Lorenzo completed his master’s in marine & Fisheries Science from the University of Aberdeen in 2008. He has specific expertise in the installation, maintenance and operation of acoustic monitoring systems deployed on offshore oil and gas, and offshore wind farm developments, including geophysical surveys, pile driving and UXO disposal projects.

Dr Nikhil Banda

Nikhil is a Research engineer at Seiche and a visiting research fellow at the Department of Physics, University of Bath. Nikhil was award an MSc and a PhD in underwater acoustics from ISVR, University of Southampton and an M.Tech from IIT Delhi in machine design. He has extensive research experience in both commercial and academic settings in various interdisciplinary fields of underwater acoustics (low and high-frequencies), oceanography, experimental studies in tanks, and design.

He is currently working on developing an active acoustic detection system for marine mammals and in using acoustic signals for target detection in waveguides. His previous work experience includes high-intensity ultrasonic systems, microbubble generation, and experimental studies in liquid waveguides. He has a practical knowledge of marine acoustic signal processing, acoustic modelling, and in geoacoustics. Nikhil has a keen interest in combining the strength of various cross-specialities and in identifying potential solutions to real-world problems.  

He believes in a hands-on and practical approach to teaching and in simplifying difficult concepts so they can be used to solve commercial and practical problems. His other interests include outreach to young students and amateur astronomy.