Aemon’s path to environmental tech wound through cybersecurity boardrooms and NPR’s overnight newsroom before a chance airport book purchase changed everything.

Aemon Malone is a Senior Software Engineer at SkyTruth, where he builds Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), web applications, maps, and other technology to make environmental data accessible to a wide range of users. He leads development for Cerulean — SkyTruth’s platform for identifying oil pollution in the ocean and its potential sources. But Aemon’s path to environmental tech wound through cybersecurity boardrooms and NPR’s overnight newsroom before a chance airport book purchase changed everything. We sat down with Aemon to learn about his journey and his work making ocean pollution visible.

What do you work on at SkyTruth?

I spend most of my time on Cerulean, specifically on the user interface. We have a pretty large dataset — hundreds of thousands of oil slicks in the ocean — and we’re trying to show that to users in a meaningful way. The challenge is letting users interact with the data so they can focus on areas they’re interested in, whether that’s types of slicks, specific regions, or particular sources. We’re trying to make it accessible.

What’s been the biggest challenge with Cerulean?

The biggest challenge has been identifying our users and then narrowing down our focus to best serve them. We’ve made a lot of strides in the last few months, understanding what our users are interested in so that we can continue to develop the application specifically for them.

How has learning about your users influenced what you’ve built?

One example is that Cerulean users want to know that the slick detections they’re seeing are real slicks and not false positives — like a weather event or some other natural cause that our algorithms identified as a slick but might not be.

We just released a feature called Verified Slicks. It’s a way for users to reach out to SkyTruth and ask for a set of expert human eyes on a detection. We can say yes, this is almost certainly a slick, and this piece of infrastructure or vessel is the likely culprit. It adds another degree of certainty to our product and our data.

How did you end up at SkyTruth?

It’s kind of a crazy story. Years before I started working here I was going to my brother’s bachelor party in Cleveland and picked up a book at the airport — just randomly because I liked the cover. It was called The Outlaw Ocean and as I was reading it, I was surprised to find it mentioned SkyTruth, a nonprofit based in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. I live nearby in Northern Virginia, so it stuck in my mind. Then one day, my wife saw a job listing and was like, “Isn’t that the company you mentioned a few years ago?” So I applied. And here I am.

What were you doing before SkyTruth?

I was working for a cybersecurity company doing software development. It was a good experience — working with data-intensive applications, which was interesting. But it was very different from SkyTruth. It was a private equity-controlled company, so the opposite of a nonprofit environmental organization.

I like the mission at SkyTruth a lot better. We don’t have paying users or shareholders to make happy. We’re just looking out for our users and trying to satisfy their needs as best we can.

Before the cybersecurity company, you worked at NPR?

Yeah, I worked there for about five years as a production assistant. I worked a lot of overnight shifts, which was tough. I really wanted to work for their music programming team, but they offered me an internship at the newsdesk. I wasn’t that interested in the news, but it was NPR, so I took it.

What were the overnights like?

I drank quite a lot of bad coffee, which probably killed my stomach for a while there. I didn’t have trouble staying awake at night — the challenge was trying to have a social life afterward. I’d meet friends on the weekend and would fall asleep sitting on the couch, then wake up three hours later, and everyone would be wondering where I was.

Let’s talk about your rather unusual household. You have a parrot and a giant tortoise?

Yeah, I have a few animals that I’ve inherited from family members who couldn’t take care of them. There’s Squawk, my cockatoo, and Zanzibar, a giant Aldabra tortoise. He lives with us right now, though I think I’m eventually going to have to relocate him because he’ll grow to be like 500 pounds. He won’t be able to live in the basement forever. They’re the second largest land tortoise, next to the Galápagos.

How big is Zanzibar now?

He’s probably 30 to 40 pounds. He spends the summers outside in a setup I made for him, but once it gets colder, he has a large enclosure in the basement where he hangs out. It’s usually about 80 degrees down there, which is a good temperature. He has some space heaters, and he’s pretty happy. He eats grasses, fruits, and vegetables — pretty standard tortoise stuff.

How did you become the family member everyone gives their animals to?

Good question. I guess I’m willing to do it. Or stupid enough to say yes. My other siblings have multiple kids, so I have more free time — in theory, at least, or at least they think so.

Does your parrot talk?

Not anymore. He’s been in the family for about 20 years. He used to say people’s names — like “Kevin,” which was my dad’s name. But he hasn’t said anyone’s name recently. Now he just mimics things, like if he hears the dog barking, he’ll try to mimic it. It sounds like he’s making fun of you.

Would you recommend a cockatoo to others?

I’m not sure I’d recommend anyone to go out and get a cockatoo. They’re not for everyone — Squawk is very pretty and social, and he has some killer dance moves, but he can sometimes be a bit loud and destructive. But since he landed in my lap, it’s still interesting and fun.

What was the biggest challenge when you started at SkyTruth?

Probably the learning curve. Learning mapping technologies, the toolset — stuff I hadn’t been exposed to very much before. For the first six months to a year, I was learning all these new things. It was challenging, but I enjoyed it, and I had lots of resources here at SkyTruth to help.

You mentioned you recently picked up hockey again after 20 years. What’s that about?

I played as a kid from about nine to sixteen, including one year in high school. Then I didn’t play for 20 years. Last winter, someone’s pond froze over, and they asked if I still had my skates. I didn’t, so I went out and spent $200 on skates. Then I was like, well, maybe I should just pick up hockey again — it’s not really worth it for just one session of pond skating.

What do you enjoy most about working at SkyTruth?

It might sound like a cliche, but everyone’s very smart and very dedicated. It’s a small, nimble team. It’s an interesting field — working in the geospatial area. I hadn’t really had much experience with it before, so I’ve learned quite a lot, which is always great. I’m pretty proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past few years. I think it’s getting better every day.

Aemon Malone is a Senior Software Engineer at SkyTruth. When he’s not coding, you can find him on the ice rink, hiking with his dogs, and abruptly stopping his car on country roads to relocate frogs, turtles, snakes, and the occasional skunk. He lives in Leesburg, Virginia, with his wife and an ever-rotating cast of furry and scaly characters.