Chairperson | University of Milano-Bicocca

Stefano Malatesta

Geographer and Associate Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca. He is member of the Board of MaRHE Center (Rep of Maldives) and former member (2018-2022) of the Executive Committee of the International Small Islands Studies Association (ISISA).

He teaches Human Geography of Small Island Systems, and Geography of Tourism. He served (2018-2021) as chair of the Working Group on Small Island and Archipelagos (AGeI). He coordinates one of the research groups of Island4Future (https://is4future.uniroma3.it/progetto). In 2017, he was awarded from the Italian Geographical Society as best under-40 geographers. His main research topics are: human geography of small islands, geopolitics of Indian Ocean, Ocean Literacy, children geographies, citizenship education and education for sustainable development.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Roberto Casati

Senior Researcher of CNRS, Professor at EHESS, director of the Jean Nicod Institute of ENS/EHESS in Paris, one of the leading research centres in cognitive science, works currently on navigation and on representations of marine environments. 
He is the author of 120 research papers and book chapters on perception, spatial representation and the use of maps and images, as well as of ten books, some of which have been translated in many languages. His seminal work on Digital Colonialism has spurred a large debate on the use of technology in schools. An avid sailor, his latest achievement is a transatlantic crossing on Albatros, a Challenge 67 monohull, as a crew member and on board researcher. Albatros was 2nd in the Cruising B class of the 2019 ARC, after 17 days in the trade winds. The Cognitive Life of Maps will be published by MIT Press (2024). He is the editor of the collection The Sailing Mind (Springer, 2022) and the author of La philosophie de l’océan (Presses Universitaires de France (2022).

University of Malta

Stefano Moncada

Ph.D. in Economics, Stefano lectures and conducts research in the areas of development economics, climate-change and islands and small states studies, with a focus on small island developing states. In 2022 Stefano won Malta’s Research Excellence Award focusing on small islands’ climate and health preparedness. 

Stefano is the Director of the Islands and Small States Institute, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Small States Health Systems and Policies, senior lecturer of the University of Malta, Coordinating Lead Author for the Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC), and acts as expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

University of Montenegro

Mirko Djurovic

As a co-chair of the Marine and Mediterranean working groups within the Ecosystem Services Partnership, Ana actively contributes to international efforts to understand and protect marine ecosystems.

Her participation in networks such as the Iberoamerican ECOMAR, EU COST Action on Ocean Governance, and the ICES Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services underscores her commitment to collaborative research and policy development. Currently, she is part of SMILES, an EU COST Action aimed at enhancing the resilience and sustainability of ecosystem services in islands.

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Ana Ruiz-Frau

Interdisciplinary researcher specialising in the intersection of social sciences and ecology, with a focus on human-marine relationships, Ana earned her PhD from Bangor University, UK, where she explored integrating diverse values for coastal management. She has contributed to the Welsh Government’s policies, participated in several EU projects on marine ecosystem services, climate change, nature based solutions and marine spatial planning. She co-chairs international working groups within the Ecosystem Services Partnership. She is currently participating in the SMILES EU COST Action, aiming at enhancing ecosystem resilience and sustainability on islands.

Through her research on marine and coastal social-ecological systems. Ana seeks to understand societal interactions with the marine environment, she approaches this through the lenses of ecosystem service and nature contributions to people frameworks, prioritising the assessment of diverse values, perceptions, and social views. Her goal is to integrate these insights into management practices to promote sustainability.

University of the Aegean

Giorgos Kokkoris

Theoretical ecologist and Associate Professor at the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of the Aegean. Giorgos’ research interests include conservation biology and the design of networks of marine protected areas. Particularly, he is interested in biological invasions and how they shape biological communities. He has served in the Scientific Committee of the European Network “International Advancement of Community Ecology Theory (INTERACT)”, funded by the European Science Foundation. He has organised the International Summer School “Ecological Data Analysis with R, EcoDAR”.

TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Petra Linhartová

Petra is currently working as a Director of Digital & Innovation at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary TBA21, leading and delivering innovations and digital solutions that drive regenerative and transformative impact in line with the TBA21’s strategy to future proof the organisation’s positive influence. Petra specialises in management and development of transdisciplinary art and environmentally-oriented projects that defy conventional categorization. She has 10 years of managerial experience and over 3 years of experience with digital transformation in the field of art and culture. Petra holds her MA in Marketing and Media Communication and in Arts Management, Education, and Policy Making.

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn | Sicily Marine Centre, Palermo

Maria Cristina Mangano

Marine ecologist strongly interested and oriented on the study of ecological responses, with the final aim to understand the effects of drivers of change – both natural and human – on the ecosystems, as for example the exploitation of marine resources (e.g. fisheries and aquaculture) specifically under a context of global change (e.g. climate change). Maria Cristina is mostly fascinated by the study of drivers driven patterns (measured at both species level – biological traits – and community level – taxonomic and functional diversity) focusing on the disentangling of mechanisms and processes of propagation along the ecological hierarchy. Her final interest is to develop sustainable solutions to inform a proactive, adaptive and dynamic management based on the Integrated Ecosystem Approach (IEA) and on scientific evidence (evidence-based management).

To inform evidence-based management and conservation measures she mostly deploys synthesis tools (e.g. systematic review) to produce knowledge baselines, crucial to build a solid, salient and rigorous dialogue among stakeholders, the so-called “science-stakeholder-policy nexus”. She believes in the importance of engaging with stakeholders on the management of marine resources (bottom-up approach) as the first step to keep it effective and to understand the socio-ecological systems (recently approached through specific data collection and analysis tools, both quantitative and qualitative). She is chair of the WGCOMEDA at ICES, PI and coPI of several national and international projects.

BLOOM

Léna Fréjaville

Léna studied political science and agricultural development and currently she is Project officer on fisheries transition at BLOOM. She was previously project officer on “rural development, biodiversity and oceans” for the French Development Agency and she was in charge of monitoring two projects on fisheries transition and marine conservation in Mexico.

Marilles Foundation

Raquel Vaquer-Sunyer

PhD in Marine Sciences at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB, Spain) in the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Research (IMEDEA, Spain) under the supervision of Dr. Carlos Duarte. At present Raquel is coordinator for the Balearic Sea State Report at the Marilles foundation, a collaborative project aimed to provide the most updated information in order to ensure a science-based management of coastal areas that warrant its conservation. Previously postdoctoral fellow (Juan de la Cierva – Incorporación) at the Department of Global Change Research (IMEDEA, Spain) 2017-2019, postdoctoral fellow (Juan de la Cierva-Formación) at the University of the Balearic Islands (2014-2016), and researcher at Lund University (Sweden) collaborating with Dr. Daniel J. Conley (2012-2014), Raquel has been awarded numerous awards and competitive fellowships, including a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (IEF, 2012-2014). 

She has participated in several research projects related to marine ecology and biogeochemistry and to effects of global change on the marine environment (in 3 as PI), in different coastal campaigns around the Balearic Islands and Cyprus, and in 6 international oceanographic cruises in waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific, the Arctic, and the Southern Oceans. She has published 24 papers in SCI journals and in some of the most influential journals including PNAS, Global Change Biology (GCB), Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) or Limnology and Oceanography (L&O).

Heritage Parks Federation

Darren Saliba

Conservation Officer of Majjistral Park and CEO of The Heritage Parks Federation. A geography graduate with interests in physical geography and geomorphology. Darren is the person in charge of the Heritage Parks Federation, an NGO whose remit is to advocate for nature conservation and the management of protected areas on the Maltese Islands. He has also been appointed to the Majjistral Park Management Board as secretary. As conservation officer Darren was in charge of several environmental restoration projects on sensitive habitats. One of the most recent projects is the restoration and rehabilitation of sand dunes (2110) through the removal of alien plant species and planting of site specific plants. Other projects done include the “MEET” project which was about sustainable tourism within the Mediterranean region and “Tourismo”, a project to valorise protected areas in relation to the flow of tourism.

Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest

Nikolaos Zouros

Professor at the Department of Geography at the Aegean University, Greece. Nikolaos is Director of the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest. He is responsible for research activities and excavations in the Lesvos Petrified Forest protected natural monument, the works and the management of the Lesvos Island UNESCO Global Geopark since 2000. He is UNESCO Advisor on Geoparks and member of the Global Geoparks Bureau since 2005. Since 2014 he has been elected President of the Global Geoparks Network. He is author of more than 100 scientific articles in international journals and conferences proceedings and 20 books on Geoparks, Geo-conservation and Geo-tourism.

Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro (JPMD)

Milena Raicevic

Currently working as an independent associate for international cooperation and projects in the Department for nature protection and sustainable development, in Public enterprise for coastal zone management of Montenegro. Milena graduated in tourism from the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality – University of Montenegro. She has over 8 years of experience in the implementation of EU and other international projects related to nature protection, sustainable development, protected areas, sustainable tourism etc.

During these years, she dealing with preparation of project proposals; project administration; public procurement procedures; financial and technical reporting; communication with project partners, different national and international institutions and organisations; preparation and monitoring of budget; project promotion and raising awareness activities; maintenance of project pages on social networks and other communication activities; implementation of different project activities; organisation of project meetings, workshops and different events; monitoring and coordination of project activities in general etc.

WorldRise

Chiara Silvestrini

Graduate in International relations with multiple years of experience in managing environmental and humanitarian volunteer projects in Asia and the Pacific area, wildlife protection projects in Central America and teaching projects in Africa. 

Background focused on ocean governance, sustainable policies,  law of the sea and political philosophy. Currently  working as Operations Manager at Worldrise ETS, managing  admin and finance for the organisation as well as the Posidonia Restoration project and the unique SEATY- Local Marine and Education Conservation Areas- project, with on field activities  in Sardinia and Sicily.

Universitat de les Illes Balears

Lluís Gómez-Pujol

Coastal geomorphologist –BSc (UIB, 1998) and PhD (UIB, 2006)– with major interests in coastal biogeomorphology and ecology, and sedimentology and Quaternary studies. Lluís is currently Reader of External Geodynamics at the University of Balearic Islands. His D. Phil. Thesis focused on rocky coast ecology and the role of organisms in weathering and erosion in limestone rocky coasts. After completing his PhD he undertook post-doctoral research on beach morphodynamics and sedimentology, at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB).

From 2011 to 2017 he was the leader of the Beach Monitoring Facility at the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB, MINECO-CAIB). Dr. Gómez-Pujol has been member of the scientific committee of the 12th and 14th International Coastal Symposium (CERF) and he was part of the Local Committee of the 2023 ASLO meeting celebrated in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain); since 2014 was member he belongs to the International Advisory Editorial Board from the Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (Wiley) one of the most recognized journals in his area. Since November 2017 he is chairing the Rock Coast Working Research Group from the International Association of Geomorphologists. Since 2022 he is the PhD coordinator of the Marine Ecology Programme at the University of the Balearic Islands.