Science Committee Chair
Dave Reid
The SCICOM Chair is based at our Secretariat in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before joining ICES, Dave was Principal Investigator in Ecosystems Based Fishery Management at the Marine Institute in Ireland. He has been at the forefront of ecosystem science, the effects of fishing, ecosystems approach, integrated ecosystem assessment, and the EU MSFD. He aims to use his extensive experience in marine science and ICES to strengthen the links between scientific research and operational advice, particularly in the context of ecosystem-based management.
Steering group chairs
Andy is a Principal Scientist and marine benthic ecologist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS). He has research interests in the assessment and management of the effects of human activities, especially marine aggregate extraction and bottom fishing activities, on vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). He works closely with the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) and North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) where he provides scientific advice on area-based fishery management measures to protect high seas biodiversity and the assessment of significant adverse impacts on VMEs. He is currently Chair of the Working Group Integrated Assessment of the North Sea (WGINOSE).
Email, Google Scholar
Ann-Lisbeth Agnalt, Aquaculture Steering Group
Ann-Lisbeth is a senior scientist at the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in Bergen, Norway. Her scientific work related to aquaculture focuses on assessing chemotherapeutants applied in salmon farming combating sea lice and effects on a range of non-target species. The outcomes of this research are implemented in the IMR's annual risk assessment of the environmental effects of Norwegian aquaculture. Ann-Lisbeth has some previous experience in aquaculture in developing countries, and she has also worked with sea ranching and stock enhancement.
Email, ResearchGate
Henn Ojaveer, Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics Steering Group
Henn is based in Pärnu, Estonia and is a Professor of marine ecosystems at the University of Tartu. His roles include leading ecosystem research, providing advice on ecosystem management, and teaching resource management.
His scientific work focuses on marine ecosystems affected by multiple human activities and climate change. Particular emphasis is devoted to ecology, impacts and management of non-indigenous species. Henn has previously served as chair of the Human Activities, Pressures and Impacts Steering Group and ACOM vice-chair. He is currently involved in the UN World Ocean Assessment III.
Email, CV, Google Scholar, ResearchGate
Jacob Bentley, Ecosystem Approaches and Methods Steering Group
Jacob is a Principal Scientist and marine ecosystem modeller at Natural England, based in London, UK. His research focuses on advancing ecosystem-informed science and advice to support the progressive implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) and Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM). He specialises in developing and applying Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) models, which he has used to explore the role of fisheries within the broader ecosystem, as well as to simulate the impacts of offshore wind development, climate change, marine protection, and eutrophication.
The outcomes of Jacob's work have contributed to ICES advice, including catch reference points (Feco) and Ecosystem Overviews, and have informed national and international policy and decision-making processes. He currently serves as Chair of the Executive Board for the Ecopath Research and Development Consortium and ICES Working Group for the Ecosystem Assessment of Western European Shelf Seas (WGEAWESS).
Email, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ORCiD, ResearchGate
Jonathan White, Fisheries Resources Steering Group
Based in Galway on the west coast of Ireland, Jonathan manages the Integrated Advice Section of Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services at the Marine Institute. He undertakes an oversight role of fish-stock assessments and related activities within the institute and translation into science advice for management.
Jonathan's interests focus on understanding and assessing the status of natural aquatic resources, with expertise in aquatic ecology, statistics, stock assessment and translation of science into objective resource management. Before demersal fisheries, he worked on Atlantic salmon stock assessments, marine habitat mapping, oceanography, and data management, initially working on lake and river ecology.
Email, ResearchGate
Laura Uusitalo, Data Science and Technology Steering Group
Laura is a research professor of sustainable fisheries at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), where her role is to bring together modern data analytics and interdisciplinary approach to fisheries science to support ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable fisheries. She has PhDs in both fisheries science and computer science along with a soft spot in her heart for social sciences. Her expertise includes marine food webs, biodiversity assessment, and environmental data analytics, particularly, but not exclusively, Bayesian methods.
Email, Google Scholar, ORCiD, ResearchGate, GitHub
Nathalie Steins, Human Dimension Steering Group
Nathalie is a senior social scientist/project manager at
Wageningen Marine Research, based in Yerseke. Her role is to lead the research collaboration with the shellfish and North Sea fishing industry, to facilitate the integration of different scientific disciplines in science and advice in the institute, and to provide advice on (capture and culture) fisheries-related resource management including socio-economic impacts.
Her scientific work focuses on transdisciplinary research with fishers and shellfish farmers, the integration of fishers’ experiential knowledge in science, fisher behaviour and social impact analysis of policy decisions. Outcomes are intended to advance understanding of the marine socio-ecological system in support of sustainable management.
Nathalie has previously worked as programme manager at the Marine Stewardship Council (NL), as a policy officer and department head at the Dutch Fish Product Board, and as a researcher at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and Wageningen Agricultural University (NL).
Pia Schuchert, Ecosystem Observation Steering Group
Pia is a Senior Scientist and project leader in the Fisheries and Aquatics Ecosystems Branch of the Agriculture- Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland, UK. Her role is to lead fisheries-dependent and independent data collection programs as well as stock assessment of demersal and pelagic species.
Her scientific work focuses on marine systems and their interactions with the environment. The outcomes of her research are intended to advance sustainable fisheries management and lead to ecosystem-based management.
Pia has previously worked as an Ecological Modeler at Queens University Belfast and Newcastle University as well as a stock assessment scientist in the Falkland Islands.
Email, ResearchGate
National members and operational group chairs
Anders Nielsen, Training Group Chair
Anders is a Professor (mso) at the
Technical University of Denmark, National Institute for Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is the research coordinator for the statistics group at DTU Aqua. His scientific work focuses on developing statistically rigorous tools for marine science in particular for fish stock assessment. Anders has previously worked at the University of Hawaii developing models and software for geolocating archival-tagged marine creatures.
Andreas Kannen, Germany
Andreas is a research scientist at Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Institute of Coastal Systems – Analysis and Modelling, Germany. He is a member of the division on Human Dimensions of Coastal Areas and has conducted research related to marine use patterns, use conflicts, offshore wind farm development and maritime spatial planning. As a social scientist, his interests focus on the socio-cultural and institutional perspective, looking at the role of the various human actors, institutions, policies, planning processes and governance structures that form the marine and coastal environment. Andreas holds several policy advisory positions and is engaged with ICES since 2006, including chairing WGMPCZM from 2011 to 2016.
Email, Bio, ResearchGate
Antonina dos Santos, Portugal
Antonina is Senior Scientist at the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) in Lisbon, Portugal. Her role is to lead plankton and oceanography research and to provide advice on ecosystem health and biodiversity for Portuguese marine areas. Her scientific work focuses on how critical connections in the complex life cycles of marine invertebrates regulate population dynamics in oceanic and coastal communities. Her research intends to advance understanding and application of ecosystem-based management. Antonina has previously worked as Director of the Department of Sea and Marine Resources at IPMA.
Email, Google Scholar, ResearchGate
Artūras Razinkovas-Baziukas, Lithuania
Artūras is a Chief Scientist and professor at the Marine Research Institute based in Klaipėda. His scientific work focuses on estuarine systems, especially lagoons covering the process-based and statistical modelling of ecosystems and their ecosystem services. The outcomes of his research are intended to advance understanding and application of ecosystem-based management. Artūras has also served as a national representative for the European Marine Board and is a former president of the Baltic Marine Biologist organization.
Email, Google Scholar, Baltic Lagoon Network
Brian MacKenzie, Denmark
Brian is a Professor of Marine Fish Population Ecology at the Technical University of Denmark, National Institute for Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) in Copenhagen, Denmark. He conducts research into the dynamics of marine fish populations in response to human and natural perturbations, teaches and supervises graduate students, and provides advice to public and private organizations. His scientific work focuses on identifying and quantifying impacts of climate change/variability, fishing and eutrophication on marine populations and ecosystems. Results contribute to ecosystem-based approaches to management and stock assessment. Brian is a recent (2012-2015) co-chair of ICES-PICES Strategic Initiative on Climate Change Impacts on Marine Ecosystems (SICCME).
Email, Google Scholar
Dariuz Fey, Poland
Dariusz is Chief Scientist at the National Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Gdynia, Poland. His role is to lead research on the early life history of fish and to provide advice on human impacts on the status of ecosystems. His scientific work focuses on the ecology of larval and juvenile fish and otolith microstructure analysis. The outcomes of the research find application in the environmental impact assessment of different human activities. Dariusz has previously worked as visiting scientist at the University of Hawaii and as a National Research Council post-doc at the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory in the United States.
Email, ResearchGate
Evan Howell, USA
Evan Howell is the Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Science and Technology, Maryland, USA. His role is to advocate and ensure a sound scientific basis for the organization's science programmes, resource conservation and management decisions, and to coordinate with other senior leadership to guide the study and adoption of rapidly evolving technological and scientific capabilities. Evan has previously worked as an oceanographer in the central Pacific Ocean region studying the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and higher trophic level species. Evan comes to ICES after a long career in PICES and brings interests in ecosystem dynamics, climate change, and the principles of open data and open science.
Email, Google Scholar
Fergal Mcgrath, Ireland
Fergal is a survey team leader with the
INFOMAR national seabed mapping programme. He is based at the
Marine Institute (MI) HQ in Galway, Ireland. His role involves supporting the delivery of the national seabed survey for Ireland. It also includes project management of INFOMAR and MI participation in national, EU and international projects.
Fergal is a geologist, with a background as a geophysicist in the offshore survey industry. He has worked at the Marine Institute on INFOMAR since 2006, which has facilitated exposure to a wide range of oceanographic, biodiversity, ecosystems and climate related work. His interest is in project development and engagement with programmes in order to facilitate integration of scientific advice with policy. He has worked internationally, both onshore and offshore, in geophysical site survey, high-resolution 2D seismic, and cable route/lay projects.
Email
Henrik works as a Senior Research Scientist at the Marine Research Centre, Finnish Environment Institute. He has a background in marine ecology, with experience from the Baltic Sea, the Barents Sea, and the Arctic Ocean. Currently, his work includes monitoring and assessment of the marine environment, with a main focus on benthic habitats. His interests include the facilitation of data- and science-based decision support in marine environmental management.
Email, Google Scholar
Jónas Jónasson, Iceland
Bio coming soon
Ivars Putnis, Latvia
Ivars is the head of the Marine Division at the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment (BIOR) in Riga, Latvia. His key role is to lead research on marine ecosystems to provide a scientific basis for rational exploitation of fishery resources and to provide advice on fish stock management. His main scientific interests are related to herring ecology, food web modelling, and ecosystem approach to fisheries management.
Email
John Pinnegar, United Kingdom
John is a Principal Scientist and lead advisor on climate change at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Director of the Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas (CCSUS), a joint initiative between Cefas and the University of East Anglia, and also Director of the International Marine Climate Change Centre (iMC3) at Cefas. His role includes strategic planning of research goals and initiatives, as well as managing a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to provide ad-hoc advice on climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation.
John's research interests include the impacts of climate change on fish and fisheries, climate change risk assessment techniques as well as marine food webs and fisheries modelling. John is a lead author of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment report. John was previously co-chair of the ICES/PICES Strategic Initiative on Climate Change in Marine Ecosystems (SICCME), he served as Honorary Secretary to the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) from 2013 to 2018.
Email,
Google Scholar,
CEFAS bio Jos Schilder, the Netherlands
Jos Schilder is an advisor with the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat). In this capacity, he is tasked with bridging the gap between policy-makers and the scientific community. He is a delegate to OSPAR bodies concerned with biodiversity and ocean acidification (BDC, ICG-COBAM, ICG-OA) and the EU-Marine Strategy Framework Directive working group on good environmental status (WG-GES). He has a background in freshwater (palaeo)ecology and climate sciences, having done research on lake food web dynamics, stable isotope ecology and lacustrine greenhouse gas dynamics.
Email
Lena Bergström, Sweden
Lena is an associate professor at the Department of Aquatic Resources at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU Aqua) and is based at the Institute for Coastal Research, Öregrund. Her key role is to lead research on marine ecosystem analyses to develop management advice in support of the ecosystem approach.
Her scientific work covers fish and aquatic food webs, the development of indicators and assessment methods, cumulative impact assessment, offshore wind farms, ecosystem services and assessment of ecological-socioeconomic interactions. One of her central roles is as an advisor in relation to the Marine Strategy Framework and the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Lena has previously worked as a researcher at Stockholm University, the Swedish Board of Fisheries and as a project coordinator at HELCOM. She has previously co-chaired ICES/HELCOM Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the Baltic Sea (WGIAB).
Email, Website, ResearchGate
Manuel Hidalgo, Spain
Manuel is research scientist at the
Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), and currently Head of the ‘Department of Oceanography and Global Change’ of this institution. He is a fisheries oceanographer and ecologist with experience in different components of impacted marine ecosystems, from species life history traits, through ecology and population dynamics, to the properties of communities and ecosystems.
His main research framework focuses on understanding the complexity of the impact of fishing activity and climate variability on the ecological mechanisms that regulate exploited populations, communities and ecosystems, including: synergies between climate and fishing impacts, structural and functional connections between populations, ecological responses to climate change, adaptation and mitigation, resilience of socio-ecological systems, and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research. He has devoted strong efforts to address comparative studies, having previously co-chaired ICES Working Group on ‘Comparative Ecosystem-based Analyses of Atlantic and Mediterranean marine systems (WGCOMEDA)’.
Email,
Website,
ResearchGateMehis Rohtla, Estonia
Mehis is an associate professor at the Estonian Marine Institute, based in Tartu. His main role is to provide scientific advice on issues related to fish migration and recruitment but also on the potential effects of offshore wind farms on fish.
Mehis' scientific work focuses on fish migratory ecology and recruitment studies by using different otolith microchemistry and biotelemetry methods. He is also involved with various environmental impact assessments and fish surveys conducted in the Estonian coastal sea. The outcomes of his research are mainly intended to provide advice to national governmental and public organizations on fish management and conservation.
Mette Skern-Mauritzen, Norway
Mette is a marine ecologist at
The Institute of Marine Research in Norway, where she is heading the research group "Ecosystem processes" on ecosystem science and advice. Mette leads research on impacts of climate change and human activities on ecosystem structure, function, productivity, and biodiversity using empirical and modelling approaches. She also leads the Norwegian Monitoring Group and is a member of the Management Forum, two joint science-management advisory groups supporting the Norwegian cross sector ocean management plans. She was a lead author of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment report.
Email,
ResearchGate
Nils Olav Handegard, Science Impact and Publication Group Chair
Nils Olav is a Principal Scientist at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway. His role is to conduct and lead research and data infrastructure projects to assess uncertainty and increase transparency in advisory processes at IMR. His main research interests focus on how various acoustic sensors can be used to observe marine organisms including data processing and large-scale observation systems. Nils Olav has previously worked at Princeton University, the University of Washington and the Alaska Fisheries Science Centre in the United States. Nils Olav is Chair of the Science Impact and Publication Group.
Email, Profile, Researcher ID
Pierre Petitgas, France
Pierre is the Director of the research unit "Ecology and models for fisheries" at the L'Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) laboratory in Nantes. He is a specialist in mapping spatial distributions of fish populations and their spatial relationships with abiotic and biotic environments. This research includes developing spatially explicit models coupling fish bioenergetics, demographics and distribution with physical and lower trophic models, as well as other tools needed to develop spatially explicit ocean management plans to address multiple objectives at regional scales. Pierre is also the French Delegate to ICES Council.
Email, Profile
Sarah Bailey, Canada
Sarah Bailey is a Senior Scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada based in Burlington, Ontario. She leads cutting-edge research to assess the risk of and evaluate management strategies for the introduction of aquatic non-native species moved by ships’ ballast water and biofouling. She works to bridge the science–policy interface through collaboration with Transport Canada and has a leading role in international policy development as Chair of two technical and policy groups related to Marine Biosafety at the International Maritime Organization.
Email, ResearchGate
David Currie, Data and Information Group Chair
Bio coming soon
Silvana Birchenough, Science Impact and Publication Group Chair
Bio coming soon
