The ICRS European Chapter use most of its budget to support ICRS students members affiliated to an European institution. Thanks to ICRS Europe grants, award recipients listed below have been able to partly cover expenses related to their presence at the International Coral Reef Symposium.
If you are also interested in applying to receive an ICRS Europe grant, stay tuned on our social media platforms or contact us: info@icrseurope.eu.
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Award recipients for 2022
Robbert-Jan Geertsma – Wageningen University & Research
I am a PhD student at Wageningen University. My research focuses on the early life of corals, using both lab- and fieldwork. How larvae behave while swimming, and what is required for a settler to survive and thrive are the main questions I intend to answer. I am also trying to understand juvenile corals to increase their survival rate.
Henrique Bravo – University of Groningen
I am from Portugal and doing my PhD at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). I study stony corals and crabs (gall crabs) and the nature of their symbiotic relationship to understand how they have co-evolved over time, with a particular focus in the Caribbean. I am also particularly interested in how the endangerment of corals can have an impact in the survival of their obligate symbionts, of which we know very little.
Thea Moule – Bangor University
I am an MRes student from Bangor University, UK and an Athena Swan scholar recipient, researching the impact of a mass coral bleaching event on carnivore and herbivore fish size distributions. I recently graduated with a First-Class Honours in BSc Marine Biology, where I was awarded the ‘Gavin Borthwick Prize’ for being the most promised marine biology student and a scholarship to attend the Coral Reef Ecology course at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. Alongside my studies, I am an ambassador for Women in Ocean Sciences, volunteers for The Marine Diaries, and have assisted on various marine ecology research projects at the School of Ocean Sciences.
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Award recipients for 2021
Sarah Cryer – University of Southampton
I use cutting-edge autonomous technology to study the effects of riverine sources of CO2 on coastal ocean acidification and coral health on the Belize Barrier Reef and I am currently in the third year of my PhD at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK. My interests are in the water chemistry surrounding corals, both from local inputs and changes driven by reef metabolism, and I am currently using high-resolution sensor data from different reefs to compare how the relationship between O2 and pH changes with reef degradation. In my spare time, I enjoy spending as much time outside as I can, hiking, running, cycling and scuba diving.
Mark Hamilton – Lancaster University
I am a PhD student at Lancaster University in the UK, researching the effects of coral reef degradation on small-scale fisheries. Specifically, my research looks at the effects of reef degradation on 1) fish assemblages targeted by fisheries, 2) fisheries yields, 3) fishing activity and 4) nutrition in tropical island communities. Bremen 2021 was my first ICRS conference and I presented findings from my first chapter about fisheries productivity and turnover on climate-impacted coral reefs.
Estradivari – University of Bremen
I am a Ph.D. candidate from Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the University of Bremen, and a grant recipient from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions to study the turf algae dynamics in the turbid reefs (see https://www.4d-reef.eu/). I have more than fifteen years of professional working experience in marine ecology, conservation, and management at WWF, UNESCO, University of Queensland, and TERANGI Foundation. I have been working closely with the science communities, stakeholders, and governments to improve coral reef health and marine management, especially in Indonesia and Coral Triangle region.
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