Speakers

Prof. Elliott is the Director of International Estuarine & Coastal Specialists (IECS) Ltd and also the Professor of Estuarine and Coastal Sciences at the University of Hull, UK. He is a marine biologist with a wide experience and interests and his teaching, research, advisory and consultancy includes estuarine and marine ecology, policy, governance and management. Mike has published widely, co-authoring/co-editing 20 books/proceedings and >300 scientific publications. He has advised on many environmental matters for academia, industry, government and statutory bodies worldwide. Mike is a past-President of the international Estuarine & Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA) and is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Estuarine, Coastal & Shelf Science; he currently is or has had Adjunct Professor and Research positions at Murdoch University (Perth), Klaipeda University (Lithuania), the University of Palermo (Italy), Xiamen University (China) and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. He was awarded Laureate of the Honorary Winberg Medal 2014 of the Russian Hydrobiological Academic Society. He is also a member of many national and international committees linking marine science to policy.

She is a chemical oceanographer with a research  focuson eutrophication and lagoons. She is:
-a Council member of the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA);
-the European Engagement Partner of Future Earth Coasts, (FEC, formally LOICZ);
-a member of RAMSAR Mediterranean Wetlands Scientific and Technical Network Climate Change Specialist Group;
-a member of  the Future Earth Ocean Knowledge Action Network development team;
-a member of the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR)  Science Executive Committee;
-a member of the pool of experts for the second United Nations World Ocean Assessment;
-a member of the Future Earth Coast Academy;
-a member of the Dialogue Forum of the Oceans-Pact.

William Pan, PhD, joined the faculty at Duke in 2011. He holds a joint appointment at DGHI and the Nicholas School of Environment, and is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Pan's research interests focuses on population, health, and environmental interactions in developing countries, with particular interest in translational research directed toward sustainable development activities and global environmental health. He has worked in countries throughout Latin America and Africa on topics ranging from land use change, reproductive health, migration, tuberculosis, HIV, enteric infections, and childhood nutrition. Pan received his doctoral training in Biostatistics from UNC-Chapel Hill with a focus on demography and spatial analysis. He also received a Master of Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

He ended his academic studies in prehistoric archaeology in 2016. During the last years of study, he started its approach to the GIS technology and he decided to specialize in it with a II Level Master in GIS Science at the University of Padua. Since 2020 he rules as GIS Analyst in Archetipo and he is an expert in the photogrammetric processing of images picked with UAV systems, in the management and analysis of all kind of geographic data and in the Satellite Remote Sensing for the Agro-Environmental Monitoring. He works with data derived from a wide range of sensors: Thermal, Multispectral and Hyperspectral. His main job consists in Research and Development for the automation of workflows for the creation of maps in the field of Agro-Environmental Remote Sensing.

Luis graduated in Oceanography from the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) and completed a masters in Marine Geology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Moreover, he is an ex-WACOMA (UNIBO, UCA, UAlg) fellow having graduated in 2020. He has experience with wave, ocean, and morphodynamic modelling and he is currently working on European Interreg Italy-Croatia projects involving climate change in the Adriatic Sea, marine and coastal forecasting, and the testing and implementation of a variety of ocean related models at different spatio-temporal scales.

Tegan is currently researching salt marsh and seagrass meadow dynamics with a focus on sediment origin and carbon sequestration in the Venice Lagoon. Her key interests include the integration of in situ data, remote sensing, and modelling as a strategy to deepen the understanding of coastal lagoon bio-geomorphodynamics and carbon sequestration spatio-temporal variability. She graduated from the WACOMA Master Degree Programme in 2020 and holds a Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Auckland (New Zealand).

Alessia Cariani, graduate and doctorate in Marine Environmental Sciences (University of Bologna), carries out her activity at the Ravenna Campus in the laboratory of Genetics and Genomics of Resources and Marine Environment - GenoDREAM - in the field of genetics and genomics, from molecular taxonomy to the evaluation of the evolutionary and environmental drivers of population structure and biodiversity in marine species (with focus on marine fish). The scientific results are applied in a context of traceability and sustainable management of fish resources, with specific application to the conservation of marine animals. Project Manager of the PRIZEFISH project in which action plans for responsible fishing are implemented and the enhancement of fish products is evaluated and quantified through innovative transformation processes and eco-certification. FAO Regional Project Consultant to support the management of shared marine resources.

She currently works as full-time researcher at the University of Cadiz (Spain) since January 2022. She gained her Full Professorship by the Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation in 2020, and by Edge Hill University (Great Britain) in 2018. Irene is a Marine Scientist with study/work experience in Canada (PhD by the University of Guelph, Ontario), Northern Ireland (Postdoctoral, Ulster University), Spain (BSc/MSc, University of Vigo) and England (Lecturer, Reader, and Professor at Edge Hill University). She also conducted BSc and MSc research at the University of Las Palmas GC (Spain) and Sydney University (Australia). This exposure to numerous learning and working environments has allowed her to collaborate with a variety of international research groups. Her research interests include the study of sandy coastlines, airflow modelling and sediment transport, coastal dune management, and transdisciplinary approaches to science communication. She is currently a member of IGU Commission on Coastal Systems, ESPL Advisory Board, and WICGE, and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Doctor in Law (Port Law Legal Framework University of Granada). nternational Maritime Law Diploma World Maritime University Malmo Sweden. MLL Administrative Law Administration National Institute and University of Granada. Teacher at University of Cadiz and other Universities. Lawyer admitted by Spanish Bar and Gibraltar Bar (UK territory). Spanish Maritime Law Association member. Legal practise in International matters and shipping in multi jurisdiction environmental incidents on behalf of insurers, cargos, ship owners etc… Legal practise advising Spanish Ports and General Council of Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Ports Commission during several years.

She joined the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna in 2009 as a Masters’ Student in Marine Biology. With her PhD and a Post-doc assignments, she has been deepening her research interests focussing on the application of molecular tools in favour of the conservation of marine species and the investigation of their evolutionary history. She has been collaborating with other National and International Research Bodies, UN Organisations (FAO) and other Universities for the management of fishery resources. Alice is now developing her new research line on the transition towards a blue economy and responsible fishery

Ifigeneia graduated from the WACOMA Erasmus Mundus master´s program in 2020 and holds a bachelor´s degree in Oceanography from the University of the Aegean in Greece. She is currently working at Tecnoambiente SLU, where she did her internship during WACOMA, as a GIS specialist and Skipper-in-training. She focuses her work on the Environmental Impact Assessment of offshore windfarms and Suitability analysis, among others.

His research interests span flow and transport in the hydrologic cycle, hydro-meteorology, geomorphology, remote sensing, hydrologic drivers of disease vectors. Rainfall, and extremes in particular, have been some of his long-term research interests. He has been the PI in several national and international projects. Most recently: “Integrated Numerical Modelling of the watershed-lagoon-sea system in Venice”, 2018-2021; “Optimal Satellite-based Estimation of Extreme Rainfall at the Global Scale”, NASA Earth Science Fellowship, Duke University, 2017-2018. He is Member of Venice Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, (2012-today), and of the Galileian Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts (2018-). He is a member of the American Geophysical Union and of the European Geosciences Union. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 5 chapters in edited books, about 120 abstracts presented in international conferences, and has edited 2 books.

Antonio Navarra is a Full Professor at the University of Bologna. He graduated in Physics at the University of Bologna in 1980. He then moved to Princeton University to get a PhD at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. He is also President of the Foundation “Centro Euromediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici” (CMCC), a multidisciplinary research center whose mission is to investigate and model the human climate system.  He has an extensive experience in climate numerical experiments and on numerical methods as a tool of scientific investigation and discovery. He has also held appointments as Affiliate Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, Boulder) and in the advisory board of the Asia-Pacific Climate Center in South Korea. He is or has been on the board of the ECMWF Council, Joint Programming Initiative “Climate” and he is on the Board of the UN Adaptation Fund.

He is co-founder and business partner of Archetipo srl of Padua. This company provides Hi-tech services for territorial survey with drones and satellite images.

Since 2015, he rules as supervisor in the fields of Environmental Remote Sensing, Precision Farming and Research and Development. He has a Master Degree in Archaeology and he is a licensed UAV pilot for Critical Operations. He research for new environmental survey techniques with a wide range of sensors as Thermal, Multispectral, Hyper-Spectral and lidar. He published on scientific magazines and played seminaries at the University of Padua even on archaeological and Agro-Environmetal remote sensing.

He is a professor and researcher at the School of the Sea, Science and Technology of the University of Vale do Itajaí (Univali) and founder of the Revista de Gestão Costeira Integrada for Portuguese-speaking countries. He has a postdoctoral degree in Political Science, a doctorate in Ecology and Natural Resources, in addition to several other courses in Brazil, Europe and the United States.

He graduated in Marine and Environmental Sciences and subsequently he got his doctorate in Oceanography at the University of Cadiz (2013). 

His research interests focus on the physical-biological coupling in the pelagic ecosystem and the development of food web and biogeochemical models, particularly for plankton and gelatinous zooplankton as jellyfish. Nowadays, he is also interested in the efects of climate change on marine food webs and fisheries.

Caterina was born and raised in Ravenna and during her studies she moved for a year to the USA for a high school exchange program. After completing her classical studies she went to Milano for her undergraduate degree in Economics and then continued with a Master of Science in Corporate Finance.

During University she managed to combine her passion and curiosity for travelling with work experiences.  In 2013 she did her first internship for a small consulting firm in Singapore, supporting Italian companies to expand to South East Asia. Later on, in 2015, Caterina worked in Geneva for Kellogg’s in the Finance Department in which she was responsible for investments valuations and cost controlling. After graduating from her Master she started a 3-years Graduate Program in Finance with Royal Dutch Shell, first in The Netherlands and then in Malaysia. In 2020, after these intense and enriching experiences, Caterina was eager to come back to Italy and start working for the family’s business. In the company, F.lli Righini, she is responsible for the Commercial activity, especially New Business Development, and Finance with a special focus on Cost Controlling.

In her free time she enjoys travelling, reading, yoga and modern art.

Enrico Sassi, Marine Geologist; 1989 Geology master’s degree at Alma Mater Studiorum -  Bologna University. During his carrier, Enrico has developed many interests in particular, as a software engineer, in the data processing, numerical analyses applied to geophysical data and remote sensing. In the last years, as chief of sales, Enrico dedicated more time to the business organization and the survey cost modelling.

At present days is Chief Commercial Officer in LIGHTHOUSE SpA,  with a focus on marine survey design and new survey technologies.

He graduated in biology at Roma Tre University, successively he started a Msc course in Environmental Assessment and Management at University of Bologna. During his Master course he entered the  EIT Climate – Knowlege & Innovation Community Master label program, where he developed his interest in climate change and renewable energies. In the same time he started to work for the AGNES project as environmental advisor, collaborating with field experts in the setting of the several environmental activities required for the governative Environmental Impact Assessment authorization procedure. He currently works as one of the environmental lead of AGNES, coordinating the development of the Environmental Impact Study of the off-shore renewable energy hub.

Head of the Marine and Coastal Numerical Forecasting Unit at the Hydro Meteo and Climate service of Emilia-Romagna region with a strong background in the ocean-coastal dynamics and modelling, the observing systems and the marine data analysis.
Project manager of several EU research and cooperation projects, mainly related to the coastal risk assessment, reduction and mitigation, to the study of the Climate Change’s effects on the coastal areas and to the management and the prevention of marine pollution due to oil-spills. Manager of the marine-coastal observation network of Emilia-Romagna.
Adjunct Professor of Advanced technologies and Decision Support Systems in water and coastal management at the University of Bologna - Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences. Member of few national and international working group in the field of the ocean observing systems, bathing water quality management and short-term water pollution.