Organising Committee

Published 10.07.2020 - Updated 10.07.2020

	Stephanie Brodie She is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Steph is an ecologist with a broad interest biogeography, fisheries, and animal ecophysiology. She has expertise in quantitative analyses and using diverse data sets to examine pelagic predator ecology and the roles that oceanographic processes play in species distributions. Steph is interested in applied research and understanding how climate change and variability is affecting living marine resources and dependent marine communities.
	Maria Grazia Pennino She is a marine biologist, with a master's degree in Biostatistic and a PhD in Mathematics & Statistics. Currently working at the C.O. Vigo, Instituto Español de Oceanografia at the Fishery Department. Her main research fields is spatial-temporal modeling and biostatistics in general to advise an effective fisheries management. She has studied different fisheries (industrial and small-scale/artisanal) and several ecosystems (Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Brazilian coastal areas), working at different spatial (from local to global) and temporal scale. Recently, she has also been interested in linking social and economic factors in the species distribution models framework to understand how they could affect the distribution of the species. Twitter handle - @grazia_pennino
	André Frainer André Frainer investigates how environmental degradation, including human-induced climate change, might affect the functional composition and diversity of marine fish in the Arctic. As part of this work, he aims at understanding how functional diversity can change ecosystem functioning, and is currently developing ways of assessing early-stress signals from different ecosystems. He is also interested in understanding how climate change might affect small-scale fisheries, with a focus on Brazilian fisheries. He is research scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, NINA, in Tromsø, Norway.
	Samiya Selim Samiya Selim is an Associate Professor and the Director of Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). She specialises in interdisciplinary areas of social-ecological systems - sustainability science, climate change adaptation and resilience, and the science-policy interface. In the past 10 years, Samiya worked on sustainability, climate change, conservation and fisheries in the UK and Bangladesh, including mobilizing hard-to-reach communities to get involved in environmental activities and to bring about sustainable behavioural change in daily life. Her current work focuses on ecosystem-based adaptation and sustainable livelihoods in coastal areas of Bangladesh facing increased salinity and erosion. Samiya recently published a book on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals relating to the environment in Bangladesh. She is also a member of the IMBeR Human Dimensions Working Group.
	Kelly Ortega-Cisneros She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science at Rhodes University, South Africa. Her research interest is focused on the influence of environmental variability and climate change on coastal ecosystems. Her postdoctoral research focused on the use of ecosystem modelling to investigate the potential effects of climate change and fisheries in marine ecosystems. Obtained her PhD. at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her PhD. investigated the importance of the variability in river flow on the functioning of estuaries using ecological network models.
	Jon Lopez Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, United States A quantitative fisheries scientist at the IATTC in La Jolla, California. Much of his current research focuses on investigating the impacts of anthropogenic activities and environmental variability on marine biodiversity and fishery resources, and developing and testing alternative mitigation, conservation and management measures that promote the sustainable use of ecosystems, including target and non-target species. He has contributed to a number of working groups of different tuna regional fisheries management organizations (t-RFMO), including the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, and is now focused in the eastern Pacific Ocean (IATTC). He is also a member of the joint t-RFMO FAD working group and the Seasonal Forecasting and Dynamic Ocean Management Task Team of CLIOTOP.
	Natașa Vaidianu An Associate Professor at Faculty of Natural Sciences and Agricultural Sciences, Ovidius University Constanta and researcher at University of Bucharest, Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Research on Territorial Dynamics. Her research includes Marine Spatial Planning, ocean governance and the science-policy interface, coastal and wetland management, stakeholder involvement and participatory approach. Her work is mainly carried out in the Black Sea Basin, Danube Delta and Eastern Europe. She is a co-convener within Land-Sea Interactions Group, OceanGov COST Action.