Invited Speakers
(Sorted by Last Name, A to Z. More to be confirmed…)
Derek Armitage
School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo
Derek Armitage is Professor and Director of the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo (Canada). He is co-lead of the Vulnerability to Viability Global Partnership for Small-Scale Fisheries, is a vice-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research program, served on the Independent Science Panel for New Zealand’s Sustainable Seas Science Challenge, and is a co-ordinating author for the World Ocean Assessment. He is co-editor of several books, including ‘Adaptive Co-Management: Collaboration, Learning and Multi-Level Governance’ (UBC Press), ‘Governance of the Coastal Commons’ (Routledge), and ‘Sea Change: Charting a Sustainable Future for Oceans in Canada’ (UBC Press).
Marta Ballesteros
Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC)
Marta Ballesteros is a researcher at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) who specializes in marine and fisheries governance as well as the science-policy interface. She is involved in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects aimed at tackling complex marine challenges within social-ecological systems. Marta leads the systematic integration of the Human Dimension at IEO and participates in a broad network of marine social scientists. She co-chairs the Working Group on Stakeholder Engagement at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the Socioeconomic Subgroup of the Technical Expert Group on Data for Maritime Spatial Planning. With over twenty years of experience, her publications emphasize the importance of incorporating social sciences as part of the best available evidence to inform decision-making.
Annette Breckwoldt
Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) Bremen
Annette Breckwoldt is an interdisciplinary marine scientist at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen (Germany). She is co-leading ZMT’s Programme Area 5 (Ocean Literacy, Equity and Leadership), and is co-PI of the binational project SOCPacific2R (A Sea of Connections: valuing reef passages in the South Pacific region; Website: socpacific.link). She collaborates on additional inter- and transdisciplinary projects for the sustainable use and protection of coastal marine spaces and to address complex issues in marine resource management, conservation and ocean-human relations. Her research focuses on marine social sciences, science-stakeholder interactions, participatory research methods, small-scale and subsistence fisheries, local knowledge and realities of resource use, environment and development of small island states, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability.
Jacob Carstensen
Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University
Jacob Carstensen is a professor at Aarhus University, Department of Ecoscience. From an educational background in mathematics and statistics, he has worked on describing and understanding long-term changes in marine ecosystems in response to nutrient enrichment, climate change and physical disturbances from human activities. Jacob is strongly engaged in environmental policies in the Baltic Sea area, on national and regional level, through developing ecological indicators and integrated assessment systems as well as providing recommendations to agencies and regional sea conventions for nutrient management. Much of his research has been centred on eutrophication and its adverse effects, such as algal blooms, loss of benthic vegetation and hypoxia. Jacob has published more >180 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited ~20000 times. According to Web-of-Science, he ranked among the top 1% cited scientists within the discipline of cross-disciplinary science in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Wen-Chen Chou
National Taiwan Ocean University
Dr. Wen-Chen Chou is a Distinguished Professor in the Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology at National Taiwan Ocean University. He serves as an Associate Editor for several esteemed journals, including Estuaries and Coasts, Frontiers in Marine Science, and the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. Dr. Chou has dedicated his career to advancing the understanding of carbonate chemistry in ocean margins and coastal waters. In the early stages of his research, he focused on the carbonate chemistry of marginal seas, particularly the South China Sea and the East China Sea. In recent years, his research interests have expanded to encompass ocean acidification and the critical role of coastal blue carbon ecosystems in climate change mitigation.
Sam Dupont
University of Gothenburg
Sam Dupont is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Marine Eco-Physiology at the University of Gothenburg. His main research focus is the biological impacts of global changes such as ocean acidification and warming on marine ecosystems. He has published in more than 200 publications in journals including Nature, Science, PNAS and TREE. He is also working on the development of innovative science communication and education strategies to tackle global challenges. The third aspect of his work aims at evaluating and building capacities for marine science in developing countries.
Masahiko Fujii
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo
Masahiko Fujii is Professor of Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Japan. He has been involved in research and education on assessment, future projection, and mitigation and adaptation measures for the impacts of global warming, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation on coastal ecosystems and local societies. Recently, he has also been investigating the impacts of ocean acidification on coastal ecosystems by examining in detail the marine environment of shallow-water CO2 seeps existing in the seas around Japan.
Janne Haugen
IBSS Corp in support of NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
Dr. Janne Haugen is a fisheries ecologist specializing in ecosystem-based management (EBM), with a focus on interdisciplinary and applied research. Her work integrates ecological, social, and economic dimensions to address complex challenges in sustainable ocean governance and social-ecological systems. She has over 10 years of experience researching and working on topics within EBM, fisheries management, shark bycatch, population dynamics, and environmental impact assessments. She works at local, national, and global scales, collaborating with academic, government, and industry partners to develop tools that inform policy decisions using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She has led several large research projects in recent years and is also the author of an upcoming textbook on EBM.
Raleigh Hood
Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
I completed my Ph.D. at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1990, followed by postdoctoral research at Oregon State University and the University of Miami, before joining the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in 1995. I have conducted research in coastal and open ocean environments all over the world, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and both the east and west coasts of North America. Presently my research is focused primarily on using models to simulate and predict biogeochemical and ecological variability in marine environments. I have also been involved in research and program development in the Indian Ocean for more than 25 years. These efforts include co-development of one of the first coupled physical-biogeochemical models of the Indian Ocean, and the formation of the Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (SIBER) Program and the Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2). I was chair of the SIBER Steering Committee from 2010 to 2019 and I am currently a member of the IIOE-2 Core Group / Steering Committee as co-chair of the Science and Research Working Group. I was the lead author of the SIBER and IIOE-2 Science Plans.
Kenneth M. Y. Leung
City University of Hong Kong
Kenneth Leung is Chair Professor at Department of Chemistry in City University of Hong Kong, where he also serves as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution. His research interests encompass marine pollution, ecotoxicology, marine ecology, biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration using eco-engineering. So far, he has published over 320 peer-reviewed articles in these areas. He received the 19th Biwako Prize for Ecology from the Ecological Society of Japan in recognition of his contributions to aquatic ecology in Asia-Pacific, and conferred as a Fellow of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). In 2022, he was elected as a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Currently, he is leading the Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme has been endorsed by the United Nations as a Decade Ocean Action for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
Su Mei LIU
Ocean University of China
Dr. Su Mei LIU is a professor of Chemical Oceanographer at Ocean University of China. Her research focuses on key processes in marine biogeochemical cycles of biogenic elements and their ecological effects, including nutrient cycles, nitrogen isotopes, environmental evolution, silicon dissolution, atmospheric nutrient deposition, and social-ecosystem interactions. She has published more than 320 academic papers.
Eugene Murphy
British Antarctic Survey
Professor Eugene J. Murphy is a distinguished marine scientist with over 35 years of research experience in marine biology and fisheries science. He holds a B.Sc. in Marine Biology and a Ph.D. in Fisheries Science and Modelling. He was Science Leader of the Ecosystems Programme at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), a Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle and an Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia. Throughout his career, Professor Murphy has led numerous large-scale research programs focusing on the dynamics of Southern Ocean ecosystems. His expertise encompasses biological oceanography, ecological modelling, population dynamics, food webs, and the interactions between physical and biological processes. He has a particular interest in Antarctic krill and their role in the Southern Ocean food web. Professor Murphy has been instrumental in developing international initiatives to understand and manage Southern Ocean ecosystems. He led the establishment of the Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics (ICED) program and has a long association with the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) program. His contributions to marine science are reflected in his extensive publication record, with over 100 peer-reviewed articles. His work has significantly advanced the understanding of marine ecosystems and informed policy development for the conservation and sustainable management of the Southern Ocean. He is co-leading the Action Plan initiative.
Young-Je Park
TelePix Co., Ltd.
He has been involved in several international projects, including Japan’s JAXA ADEOS-II/GLI project, the MERIS application at the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS), and coastal water monitoring using MODIS and high-resolution satellite imagery at CSIRO, Australia.
Since joining KIOST in 2011, his primary research focus has been on the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), an ocean color sensor operating in geostationary orbit, which provides hourly ocean color images during daylight hours over the northeast Asian seas around Korea. He serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) of GOCI application projects, which focus on utilizing GOCI data to address environmental challenges in Korean waters. Additionally, he was actively involved in the development of its successor, GOCI-II, which became operational in space in early 2020, and led an R&D project to develop the ground system for GOCI-II operations.
His international contributions include serving on the organizing committees for PORSEC (Pan Ocean Remote Sensing Conference) 2018 and IOCS 2019, as well as being a member of the IOCCG Executive Committee and co-chair of the IMBeR OCPC Group.
Heidi Pethybridge
CSIRO Environment Research
Hiroaki Saito
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo
Rowan Trebilco
CSIRO Environment, and Centre for Marine Socioecology
A’an Johan Wahyudi
National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BRIN)
A’an Johan Wahyudi is a Research Professor in Marine Biogeochemistry and a Principal Research Scientist specializing in the ocean’s carbon cycle. His work focuses on assessing the sources, variability, and impacts of organic carbon and carbonate systems, including the organic carbon budget, carbonate system variability, and nutrient dynamics, as well as investigating element transfer, deposition, and accumulation. He serves as the IMBeR National Contact for Indonesia, Chairman of the Indonesia Marine Biogeochemistry Forum, and Secretary-General of the Oceanologist Association of Indonesia.