Dr. Vernon is the CEO of Boulder Real Time Technologies after many years as a Research Geophysicist at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. Throughout his career he has developed and deployed large-scale distributed real time sensor networks in terrestrial and marine environments. The first of these systems is ANZA seismic network, which was the first fully digital telemetry network starting in 1982. The ANZA network was an early adopter of broadband seismometers and 24-bit data acquisition systems in the early 1990s. The ANZA network is the first operational network to use the Antelope software system. The next system is the High Performance Wireless Research and Education program which initiated wide area wireless IP networking for sensor networks starting in 2001. The ANZA and HPWREN experience influenced the design of the USArray Transportable Array which has deployed over 2200 stations starting in 2004 and uses Antelope for operations. Dr. Vernon has also led multiple very dense seismic nodal deployments around the San Jacinto and San Andreas fault zones.

Dr. Vernon obtained a B.A. in Physics with specialization in Earth Sciences from UCSD in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from UCSD in 1989. He is author or co-author on more than 150 refereed scientific articles.