Meet the 2019 Ocean Talks Speakers

Professor Andrew Brierley is a Professor of Marine Biology at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, where he leads the Pelagic Ecology Research Group. His research focusses on ecosystem processes in the pelagic – the watercolumn, away from the sea bed – and addresses questions to do with spatial and temporal patchiness, and how predators interact with prey in the vastness of the open ocean.

Professor Brierley has ongoing research projects in the Arctic, Antarctic and tropics. He is a UK delegate to the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) Fisheries Acoustics Science and Technology Working Group, a UK representative on the International Arctic Science Committee’s Marine Working Group, and a member of the UK delegation to the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee.

Professor Brierley convened the Third International Symposium on Krill in 2017, and in 2018 proposed to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) a Krill Action Group, which was adopted. His most recent research is using scientific echosounders to sample fish in the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ (the mesopelagic; depth range 200 to 1,000m). There may be 1,000 Million Tonnes of fish there (the present total global commercial fish catch is about 100 MT) and it is vital that we develop a good understanding of this little-known ecosystem before commercial fishing develops.

Bec Atkins is the Director of Operations for the Manta Trust. She has been working with the Manta Trust since 2011, having joined the Maldivian Manta Ray Project (MMRP), the Manta Trust’s founding project, to conduct a research study as part of her Master’s degree. The study looked at manta tourism, and more specifically, human interactions, behavioural impacts and management implications; this would later be used to help inform a Code of Conduct for manta ray tourism. After completing her MSc, Bec worked in marine conservation as a Researcher and later as a Marine Lead Adviser for Natural England. She remained involved with the Manta Trust as a member of the charity’s Board of Trustees for several years, before taking on the role of Director of Operations in 2016.

As an experienced diver and dive instructor, Bec has always been fascinated by the marine world but her first encounter with manta rays in Western Australia in 2005 had her hooked on these majestic and graceful creatures. As one of six members of the Core Operations team, Bec works to support the Maldivian Manta Ray Project and over twenty other affiliate manta and devil ray research and conservation projects worldwide.

Dr Jessica Wade is a British physicist and early career researcher in the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London. Her research investigates polymerbased light emitting diodes (LEDs). She also carries out public engagement work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), particularly in the promotion of physics to girls. Dr Wade won the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Robin Perrin Award for Materials Science in 2017, the Institute of Physics Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize in 2018 and was included in Nature’s 10 people who mattered in science in 2018.