POGO-SCOR Fellowships 2007

Dr Alba’s research interests lie in the ecology of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton and in chemical and biological properties in coastal and estuarine systems. He is interested to study the natural plankton population using flow cytometry methodology as well as the flow cytometer and microscope (FlowCAM) on which he had been trained under the supervision of Dr. Michael Sieracki at the J.J. MacIsaac Aquatic Cytometry Facility, at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, USA. The duration of the training was three months.

Ms Aveytua-Alzacar is studying upwelling events on biogeochemical and physical processes in San Quintin Bay, Mexico. Under the supervision of Dr Alejandro Souza of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK, she has been trained for a period of 3 months on coupling the hydrodynamic 3D model POLCOMS with ERSEM. She is the first researcher in Mexico to work with coupled hydrodynamic-ecological models.

Ms Cabrera conducts research on primary production and remote sensing of ocean colour. She attended a three-week course entitled “Application of remote and in situ ocean optical measurements to ocean biogeochemistry” at the Darling Marine Centre of the University of Maine, under the supervision of Dr Emmanuel Boss. The knowledge acquired during this course will be useful in planning future scientific cruises in selected seas in the Philippines.

Dr Cui is involved in the Dragon Programme of the First Institute of Oceanography which investigates ocean colour inversion models from MERIS data. He will be trained for a period of 3 months by Dr Steve Groom, at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory on semi-analytic and analytic bio-optical model development for turbid case II waters.

Ms El Amrani is doing her PhD in Oceanogaphy at University Abdelmalek Essaâdi, Morocco. During her three-month training at the Centro Oceanográphico de Málaga, she will be involved in two projects: the project NITROALBORAN, looking at the biogeocheminal transformation of nitrogen in Aboran Sea, and the project ECOMALAGA studying physical, chemical and biological variation in the Alboran Sea. She will be supervised by Dr Jesús M. Mercado.

Dr Goes studies large scale features of water masses in the tropical Atlantic. His training was on ARGO floats and assimilation ocean data (SODA) applied to water mass formation rates and subduction characteristics of the Antarctic Intermediate Water. The three-month training was supervised by Dr James Carton at the University of Maryland.

Mr Madhan is an electrical engineer involved in remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India. The one-month training received at Montery Bay Aquarium Research Institute, under the supervision of Dr William J. Kirkwood, allowed Madhan to become familiar with the Gimbal design and enhanced his understanding in various aspects of the mechanical design of vertical profilers. He also participated in three cruises for deployment and operation of an AUV, an APEX drifter and a ROV.

Dr Moufaddal is a researcher at the National Institute of Oceanography & Fisheries, Egypt. He has done his Ph.D. in coastal remote sensing and environmental studies. His training is on the utilisation of ocean colour satellite data for the study of variability in phytoplankton and suspended sediments in coastal waters. This three-month training is supervised by Dr Samantha Lavender at Plymouth University, UK.

Mr Naik is a project assistant at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India. He has
participated in many oceanographic cruises for time-series observation. During his three-month
stay in Italy he studied the diversity of phytoplankton community and the variability on their
morphological features by learning methods of identification of phytoplankton. He has also
been trained on methods to culture dinoflagellates. He was supervised by Dr Diana Sarno at
the Stazione Zoologica ‘A. Dohrn’.

Mr Negri’s research interests lie mainly in remote sensing of coastal environments and ocean circulation. He is currently completing his PhD at the Federal University Fluminense. His training at the Stennis Space Center provided background knowledge in ocean optics and sensor technology. He also implemented different ocean colour algorithms comparing in situ measurements and satellite data. The training was supervised by Dr Richard Gould and lasted three months.

Dr Radjawane’s research is related to numerical modeling of hydrodynamic, tides, ecosystem and environment using 1D, 2D and 3D POM models. With her fellowship, Dr Radjawane will travel to the University of Maine, where she will gain knowledge on the application of biogeochemical models using the coupled Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) on the parallel computer facility. Dr Radjawane will be supervised by Dr Fei Chai for a period of two months.

Ms Ramirez is a research assistant at the El Colegio de La Frontera Sur. She has experiences in field measurements, data analysis and modeling using Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) for the region of Quintana Roo, Mexico. During her training she has expanded her knowledge on ROMS models under the supervision of John Wilkin at Rutgers University. The training lasted three months.

Dr de Souza is a professor at the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, where he studies organic carbon metabolism, carbonate chemistry and atmospheric fluxes in estuaries and coastal waters. Dr de Souza undertook a two-month training under the supervision of Dr Gwenaël Abril at the Université Bordeaux, France, where he participated in the design of experiments and measurements of pCO2 and CO2 fluxes through ocean/atmosphere interface.