In this talk, outgoing EMB Young Ambassadors discussed their research and experiences as Young Ambassadors. Rebecca focused on her experiences connecting research with marine policy and society (download slides here) and Anjali on lessons and introspections from an ECOP’s perspective (download slides here).
Anjali Gopakumar holds a BTech in Biotechnology from VIT University, India, and an MSc in the EU-funded Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programme: International Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources (IMBRSea). Currently, she is working as a Cotutelle PhD student at University of Bologna (Italy) - an EMB Member Organisation via CoNISMa - and Macquarie University (Australia), investigating the ecosystem functions and services of restored salt marshes in urban seascapes. Her research focuses on the impacts of restoration on microbial communities and biogeochemical fluxes in salt marshes in the Venetian lagoon in Italy, and in the estuaries of New South Wales in Australia. She will speak about her PhD work, and will also reflect on her experience of moving to Australia half way through her studies and the effect this had on her work and participation in the Ambassador programme. She will share some take-away messages with attendees.
Rebecca has a BSc in Earth Sciences from the University of Frankfurt, a MSc in Marine Environmental Science from the Carl Ossietzky University Oldenburg and a Postgrad Diploma in Marine Science and a PhD in Marine Chemistry from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her PhD project investigated the principles and processes underlying copper speciation in marine ecosystems around New Zealand in an effort to advance current understanding of trace metal biogeochemistry, refine aquatic biogeochemical models, and improve environmental risk assessments for bioactive metals. From 2020 to 2021 Rebecca worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) focusing on the biogeochemistry of iron in the High Latitude North Atlantic. Since October 2021, Rebecca is part of the Marine Mineral Resource group of Geomar-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, an EMB Member Organization in Germany. She will speak about her work at Geomar, as well as the importance of Ocean Literacy and of bridging the science-policy interface in this regard. She will also speak about the tools, event and activities that have helped her in this, including those linked to the Ambassador programme.
You can re-watch this webinar on the EMB YouTube page.