Speakers
Speakers
Dr. Carolina Camus
Associate Researcher, Centro i~mar & Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (CeBiB)
University of Los Lagos
Chile
Dr. Carolina Camus is an Associate Researcher at the Centro i~mar & Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (CeBiB) at the Universidad de Los Lagos, and the Director of the Millennium Nucleus in Marine Agronomy of Seaweed Holobionts (MASH). Carolina is an ecologist and phycologist dedicated to sustainable seaweed production from ecological and agronomic perspectives. Her research is primarily centered around the sustainable aquaculture of macroalgae, using two species of economic and ecological importance as study models (Gracilaria chilensis and Macrocystis pyrifera). She delves into understanding the drivers of macroalgae productivity, managing their complex life cycles, and, recently, incorporating their interactions with associated microbial communities under the concept of the holobiont.
Her career spans academia, the private sector, and communities, allowing her to bridge the gap between knowledge generation and practical application for productive, social, and environmental benefits. This includes her participation in biotechnological projects demonstrating the feasibility of fermenting and producing biofuels from seaweed biomass, pilot projects transferring seaweed cultivation technology to artisanal fishermen, and current evaluations of the ecosystem services provided by cultivating giant kelp.
Dr. Louis D. Druehl
Professor Emeritus
Simon Fraser University
Canada
Dr. Louis D. Druehl, Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University, has taught and conducted kelp-oriented research, since the 1960s. He led the 5-university committee that identified the site for the Bamfield Marine Station. From 1979 to 1984, he directed BC Provincial-funded research leading to the first commercial kelp farm outside of Asia. Since 1985 his SFU students and their students have pioneered DNA-molecular tools in understanding seaweed relationships. His Canadian Kelp Resources, Ltd. conducted kelp productivity studies for GE during the OPEC Crises, offers kelp farming workshop, and works with others on kelp restoration. Over the years, he has worked with Cubans, Russians, Americans, Brazilians on seaweed issues, and offered a UN-sponsored kelp biology course in Chile. Pacific Seaweeds produced with Bridgette Clarkson is a best-seller and award winner. He enjoys the naming of a diatom genus, Druehlago, a kelp species, Saccharina druehlii, and for a short time a kelp genus, Druehlia fistulosa. Presently, he and his wife Rae Hopkins reside in Bamfield where they continue marketing CKR kelp and servicing kelp-interested folks. Hobby-wise Louis is working on his fourth novel, enjoying Phyco-Buddies, and fighting off the ravages of old age.
Dr. Karen Filbee-Dexter
Marine Ecologist
UWA Oceans Institute
University of Western Australia
Australia
Dr. Karen Filbee-Dexter is a marine ecologist studying the drivers and patterns of long-term change in coastal ecosystems. Her research centers on climate-driven changes to kelp forests, including shifts to alternate ecosystem states such as turf reefs and sea urchin barrens, and expansion along some Arctic coasts. She is an expert in the production and export of seaweed detritus, and the role seaweed blue carbon plays in the broader ocean carbon cycle. She has helped develop new restoration approaches for kelp forests using Green Gravel, as well as explored novel methods to fund kelp conservation and restoration. Karen holds a Future Fellowship at the University of Western Australia and works as a researcher at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway. She obtained her PhD from Dalhousie University and is an adjunct professor at Universite Laval in Canada.
Dr. Catriona L. Hurd
Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)
University of Tasmania
Australia
Dr. Catriona L. Hurd is a phycologist with expertise in the physiological responses of seaweeds to environmental drivers including light, temperature, water motion, dissolved inorganic carbon and nutrient supply. Her research currently focusses on the impacts of ocean acidification, ocean warming and marine heat waves on seaweed metabolism, the development of seaweed aquaculture in Australia, and on assessing the role of seaweeds in marine Carbon Dioxide Removal.
Dr. Jang K. Kim
Professor of Marine Science
Incheon National University (INU)
South Korea
Dr. Jang K. Kim is a Professor of Marine Science at Incheon National University (INU), Korea. He received his undergraduate degree from INU, and his MSc and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut (UCONN), USA. Dr. Kim has served on various international, national and provincial committees including, UNDP/GEF YSLME Steering Committee, Yellow Sea Peace Forum, Coastal Management Planning Committee of Korea, Coastal Management Council of Incheon, etc. Dr. Kim is also an associate editor/editorial board member of Algae, Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, Phycological Research, Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, and Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences.
During the past 25 years, his research has focused on interactions between marine algae and their environment. He is most interested in seaweed aquaculture and its applications. Specifically, Dr. Kim has worked on open water and land-based seaweed aquaculture, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, and blue carbon ecosystem-based carbon dioxide removal. He has also conducted numerous collaborative research projects with international partners in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has hosted many knowledge exchange programs between Korea and the US or Europe for seaweed aquaculture and environmentally sustainable aquaculture.
Dr. Michael Y. Roleda
Professor at the Marine Science Institute
University of the Philippines-Diliman
Philippines
Dr. Michael Y. Roleda is a Professor at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines-Diliman. His passion for tropical seaweed started in the early 1990s cataloguing biodiversity and worked on the biology and biochemistry of an agarophyte. Further graduate study and postdoctoral fellowships in Germany, Sweden, and Scotland enabled him to work on cold-temperate and polar seaweeds and microalgae with emphasis on their physiological responses to global climate change stressors (e.g., UVR, ocean warming and acidification). In 2004, he went bipolar– participated in land-based expeditions to Spitsbergen in the Arctic and King George Island in the Antarctic. His search for a niche brought him to the Southern Ocean in New Zealand and then back to the North Atlantic in Norway, where he started working on the food and feed applications of seaweeds. He came full circle in 2018– back in the Philippines working on the biodiversity of carrageenan-producing eucheumatoids (Kappaphycus spp., Eucheuma denticulatum, and Betaphycus gelatinus), led and improved the in vitro and hatchery gene banks with >200 unique strains undergoing genotypic and phenotypic characterizations, understanding their ecological breath and susceptibility to pest and diseases, and innovating mitigating measures.