GUEST SPEAKERS

Rogelio García

The History of Underwater Habitats

Roger García is the Operations Director for Florida International University’s (FIU) Medina Aquarius Underwater Laboratory and the university’s Diving Safety Officer. Roger is a retired military medic and US Navy Diver with 41 years of combined experience. His area of expertise is in Saturation Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine.

Roger has been part of the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory Program for 21 years and as a qualified aquanaut himself, he has completed 15 saturation missions with a cumulative 88 days living underwater inside Aquarius. Roger has been part of many research projects ranging from coral transplantation, sponge research, fish research and military and space research projects alike. As the Operations Director he has been responsible for the training and safety of Aquanauts who have participated in Aquarius missions, as well as the everyday maintenance and up-keep of the Aquarius Underwater Habitat.

Marta Martins

Micro and Nanoplastics toxicity: the knowns and unknowns

Marta Martins (MM) has a PhD in Environmental Sciences and is currently Associate Professor at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (NOVA FCT), where she teaches courses related with ecotoxicology and aquatic pollution. She’s the coordinator of the Master programme in Marine Living Resources: Science, Technology and Society and she is a member of the Scientific Committee of the PhD Programme in Environment and Sustainability. MM is also coordinator of MARlab – Marine and Environmental Risk laboratory at the research centre MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre. She is leader of the research line Ecotoxicology and Environmental Risk dedicated to the study of the toxicological interactions of environmental pollutants (from chemicals to nano- and microplastics) to improve the basis of Environmental Risk Assessment Strategies and monitoring.

She works with both in vivo and in vitro models from aquatic organisms to human cells to evaluate the toxicological effects and mechanisms at the molecular, biochemical, and histopathological levels. She has published several papers in the field of environmental toxicology, aquatic Pollution, food safety and risk assessment. She has been involved in several national and international research projects on microplastic research such as, currently, Nanoplastox – Nanoplastic Toxicity: from gut inflammation to systemic effects, Plastic Hg – Effects of Microplastics on Mercury’s Biogeochemical Cycle, and Agriplast – Organização da Produção e Inovação para a redução de Plásticos Agrícolas.

Eleanor Frajka-Williams

Unravelling the Atlantic ocean conveyor: Insights and challenges from observations

Dr Eleanor Frajka-Williams is a Science Leader in the Marine Physics and Ocean Climate group.

She has been the principal investigator of the European Research Council Starting Grant TERIFIC (Targeted Experiment to Reconcile Increased Freshwater with Increased Convection, https://noc.ac.uk/projects/terific, funded by the EU) and the RAPID 26°N project. She has also been a co-investigator on BLT Recipes (Bottom boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes, funded by NERC and NSF), DeCAdeS (Drivers of Oceanic Change in the Amundsen Sea, funded by NERC), and DEFIANT and ReBELS (funded by NERC). She is currently the professor in charge of Experimental Oceanography.

Dr Elenaor uses ocean observations to investigate ocean dynamics and circulation in a changing climate. I have a particular interest in problems spanning scales (from micro- to large-scale) or spheres (biogeosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere), and in methods that leverage traditional observations with new platforms and satellite data.