MB-System was originally developed at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (L-DEO) and is now a collaborative effort between the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and L-DEO.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been the primary supporter of MB-System™ development. NSF initially provided grants to the authors at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1993 (two years), and 1995 (five years). SeaBeam Instruments also contributed significant effort from 1994 to 1999. NSF support has been renewed through a new five year grant (2001-2005) to Caress at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and to Chayes at Lamont. MBARI is matching the NSF support as part of its seafloor mapping program. In addition to Dave and Dale, the following people of contributed code and/or ideas to MB-System™ :
Suzanne O'Hara (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Daniel Scheirer (Brown University)
Paul Cohen (SeaBeam Instruments, now Fidelity Investments)
Steve Dzurenko (SeaBeam Instruments, now University of Texas)
Peter Lemmond (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
David Brock (formerly with Antarctic Support Associates)
Alberto Malinverno (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, later at Schlumberger-Doll)
Russ Alexander (formerly with UCSB)
Roger Davis (University of Hawaii)
Additionally, vendors and users, too numerous to mention, have provided invaluable information regarding data file formats and sonar system specific characteristics.