People

IPSO leads

IPSO is an initiative rather than an organisation. It is proactive when its scientific and expert contributors identify a specific need or gap which IPSO is in a position to address. As such it does not maintain a permanent office, staff or other infrastructure beyond this website.

It has two unpaid leads who cover the two basic disciplines of the organisation: Professor Alex Rogers is responsible for science; Mirella von Lindenfels for outreach and overall direction of the initiative.

In addition, Professor Dan Laffoley acts as Coordinator for the State of the Ocean Workshops.

IPSO does not receive any government or corporate money, and all our scientists and experts contribute their time and energy pro-bono.

A roll call of scientists and communications, legal and policy experts have contributed to IPSO’s work over the years, see the list below.

Professor Alex Rogers

Professor Alex Rogers

Alex is currently a Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Somerville College. His research focuses on biodiversity hotspots in the oceans, ecosystems characterised by high species richness and / or high levels of endemism. This work has focused on the deep sea and also on tropical coral reef ecosystems. He also works on marine policy specifically related to the sustainable management of exploitation of marine resources particularly deep-sea fisheries. Alex is an advisor to the Global Ocean Commission and on the Programme Committee of WWF. In the past, Alex has been a key scientist involved in the Core Programme on Biodiversity at the British Antarctic Survey and has worked with the Zoological Society of London as a reader in marine ecology. He is the scientific lead at IPSO and is working on several projects pertaining to the ecology of marine ecosystems.

Mirella von Lindenfels

Mirella von Lindenfels

Mirella is co-founder of both Communications INC, a communications agency working with international NGOs, and IPSO. An award-winning expert in communications, she has 30 years’ experience working for a number of NGOs. She has held senior positions within organisations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International and helped create the High Seas Alliance. Mirella continues to be active within several ocean coalitions and specialises in strategic communications and campaign design.

Professor Dan Laffoley

Professor Dan Laffoley

As a leading expert on ocean conservation, Dan is an IUCN Principal Advisor in Marine Science and Conservation for its Global Marine and Polar Programme, as well as the honorary Marine Vice Chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas. Dan specialises in working with leading scientists to create initiatives on policy issues including coastal carbon sinks, climate change and ocean acidification. He currently sits on many Boards and Councils of leading UK marine science organisations and has over 25 years of experience creating many national, European and global partnerships or alliances on marine conservation.

Roll call of contributors

Many thanks to the experts who have given their time to IPSO pro bono: scientists and communications, legal, policy and economic experts.

All are listed below.

If we have omitted anyone from this list, please get in touch.

Core group of scientists

Dr Patricio Bernal Coordinator, IUCN High Seas Initiative

Dr Mebrahtu Ateweberhan Department of Life Science, University of Warwick, UK

Dr Jelle Bijma Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research; Adjunct Professor of Marine Geosciences at Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

Assistant Professor William W.L. Cheung Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada

Professor Robert J. Diaz Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA

Dr Craig Downs Executive Director, Haereticus Environmental Laboratory

Professor Jason Hall-Spencer School of Marine Science and Engineering, University of Plymouth, UK

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Professor of Marine Science, University of Queensland; Director, Global Change Institute

Dr Thomas H. Hutchinson Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science, Weymouth Laboratory, UK

Professor Dan Laffoley Principal Advisor on Marine Science and Conservation, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme, UK; Marine Vice-Chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas

Dr Daniel Pauly Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada; Principal investigator, Sea Around Us Project

Professor Tony Pitcher Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada

Professor N. Polunin School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, UK

Professor Philip Chris Reid Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, University of Plymouth, UK

Professor Alex D. Rogers Scientific lead, IPSO; Professor in Conservation Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK

Professor Charles Sheppard School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, UK

Scientific contributors

Chaolun Allen Chen Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Province of China

Dr David A. Feary School of the Environment, University of Technology, Australia

Dr R. Haedrich University Research Professor, Department of Biology, Memorial University, Canada

Dr Kirsty Kemp Research Fellow, Zoological Society of London, UK

Dr Shashank Keshavmurthy Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Province of China

Robin J. Law Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory, UK

Professor Tim Lenton Chair in Climate Change/Earth Stystems Science, University of Cambridge, UK

Dr Janice Lough Senior Principal Research Scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Australia

Brett P. Lyons Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science, Weymouth Laboratory, UK

Yvonne Mather Senior Scientist, Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), University of Portsmouth, UK

Dr David Obura Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO), East Africa

Paul Pearce-Kelly Senior Curator, Zoological Society of London, UK

Professor Hans O. Pörtner Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

Professor Michael H. Schleyer Oceanographic Research Institute, South Africa

Dr Bob Smith Senior Research Fellow, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), Kent, UK

Dr MG Stafford-Smith Department of Marine Biology, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia

Dr Rashid Sumaila Director, Fisheries Economics Research Unit, University of British Columbia, Canada

John E. Thain Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science, Weymouth Laboratory, UK

Dr Derek Tittensor Senior Marine Biodiversity Scientist, UNEP-WCMC; Research Scientist, Computational Ecology and Environmental Science group, Microsoft Research

Dr J.E.N Veron Chief Scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Australia

Communications, legal, policy and economic experts

Dr Frank Ackerman Director, Climate Economics Group

Duncan Currie Independent international affairs professional, international and environmental law

Charles Fox Programme Director, Oceans 5

Barry Gardiner Vice President, GLOBE International (Global Legislators Organisation)

Matt Gianni Policy expert, ocean conservation

Professor Kristina M. Gjerde Senior High Seas Advisor, International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Sophie Hulme Director, Communications INC

Daniel Owen ­ Barrister (Marine Public Law), Cambridge, UK

Kelly Rigg Varda Group

Karen Sack Managing Director, Ocean Unite

Kristian Teleki Vice President, SeaWeb (now, Director of Global Engagement, Global Ocean Commission)

Mirella von Lindenfels IPSO

Kateryna Wowk Senior Social Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Torsten Thiele Senior Research Associate, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam