Speakers - BLS9

Theunis Piersma

Theunis Piersma is Emeritus Professor in Global Flyway Ecology at the University of Groningen, research associate of BirdEyes-Centre for Global Ecological Change in Leeuwarden, and a senior scientist at NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research on Texel. His worldwide research centred on the demography of 15 migratory bird populations (including black-tailed godwits and spoonbills in the Netherlands). This work forms the basis for investigations on population processes, distributional ecology, developmental biology, social systems, migration and animal cultures. In 2014, he won the Spinoza Prize of NWO and in 2020 the Godman-Salvin medal of the British Ornithologists' Union. In addition to more than 700 scientific articles, he has published some 20 books, including 'Sinagote. The biography of a spoonbill’ (published by Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, in English, French and Spanish, 2022). With multi-instrumentalist Sytze Pruiksma, he created and performed “TRACKS”, a musical performance for Oerol 2017 about migratory birds in the Wadden Sea. For the past six years, he and his team have been working on establishing BirdEyes-Centre for Global Ecological Change in Leeuwarden, a new interdisciplinary and interfaculty branch of the University of Groningen (birdeyes.org).

Maria Dias

Maria Dias is a professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and a researcher at CE3C — Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes. Maria has been studying the movement ecology of migratory birds, particularly seabirds and shorebirds, since 1999. She is currently leading the ECO-CONNECT research group at CE3C, which is focused on characterizing the connectivity across ecosystems shaped by animal movements, and on understanding the impact of human activities on ecological connectivity. Maria worked for several years for BirdLife International, where she coordinated the marine science team responsible for the development and maintenance of the Seabird Tracking Database. Maria has also been engaged in translating scientific knowledge into effective conservation action. She was part of the technical committee of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, and collaborated with the OSPAR Commission (established under the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) on the creation of one of the largest marine protected areas in the world – the NACES MPA, identified solely based on tracking seabird movements via bio-logging.

Robert Lennox

Rob Lennox is the Scientific Director of Ocean Tracking Network and Professor of Biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Ocean Tracking Network is one of six Major Research Facilities in Canada, funded by Canada Foundation for Innovation to provide operations and maintenance of critical ocean observation infrastructure. OTN manages billions of tagged animal detections from around the world, supports maintenance of acoustic receiver infrastructure on Canada's three coasts, and loans receivers to researchers around the world. Dr. Lennox's research group at Dalhousie (the Movement and Ecophysiology Research Group) uses a variety of animal tagging and tracking tools to study health and performance of wild fish in the context of conservation and sustainable management. The research group is supported by grants from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, NSERC, CFI, the Nova Scotia Freshwater Fisheries Research Cooperative, the Foundation for Conservation of Atlantic Salmon, and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission.

Flavio Quintana

Dr. Flavio Quintana is one of the leading marine conservation biologists in Patagonia. He reached the highest degree (Investigador Superior) in the career of a scientific researcher at the National Research Council for Science and Technology of Argentina (CONICET). He leads the Marine Top Predators Ecology Lab. at Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos (IBIOMAR-CONICET). Dr. Quintana made his graduate and PhD studies at Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. Dr. Quintana's research has mainly focused on the pelagic ecology and movement ecology of marine mammals and birds along the Patagonian coast. He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters, and other publications, and has participated in the training and supervision of dozens of graduate and undergraduate students. His research has made important contributions to the scientific investigation of the marine ecosystem of the entire area, from the coastal headlands to the edge of the continental shelf. The research has also provided important directives on the conservation of the ecosystem, which is affected by coastal and offshore human activities at sea.

Judy Shamoun-Baranes

Judy Shamoun-Baranes is a professor at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem dynamics at the University of Amsterdam. Judy’s research focuses on how external and intrinsic factors influence animal movement, from fine scale flight behaviour to transcontinental migrations using bio-logging and radar technologies as key research tools. An interdisciplinary approach, long-term collaboration, the development and improvement of tracking methods and e-science infrastructure are essential for her work. Judy finds the creation of research communities important and was involved in the development of the UvA Bird Tracking System (UvA-BiTS), establishing a European network for the radar surveillance of animal movement and began International Animal Movement Analysis training courses in 2010. She is passionate about connecting research on animal movement to society through public engagement and addressing societal challenges.

Kentaro Sakamoto

Kentaro Sakamoto is an Associate Professor at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. As a comparative physiologist, he is deeply interested in understanding how diverse marine animals, including sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals, adapt to their oceanic environments. To study their behavior, he developed Ethographer, a software package designed to visualize acceleration records, which has significantly advanced the integration of such metrics into bio-logging research. Furthermore, Kentaro developed a convenient, non-invasive system to record electrocardiograms from diving animals. This comprehensive package, consisting of pressure-resistant hardware, waterproof electrodes, and specialized analysis software, drives progress in diving physiology through bio-logging. He earned his D.V.M. and Ph.D. from Hokkaido University, and has rich field experience, including overwintering with the 45th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition.

Randall Wells

Randall Wells is a co-founder and former director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, the world’s longest-running dolphin conservation research program, initiated in 1970. The program engages in studies of the biology, behavior, ecology, health and impacts of humans on a long-term resident community of bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida. The natural laboratory situation of Sarasota Bay has facilitated development of tagging for small cetaceans. Wells completed his Master’s at the University of Florida, and his PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz, doing his dissertation research on Hawaiian spinner dolphins and bottlenose dolphins in Florida. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, before joining Brookfield Zoo Chicago during 1989-2026. He has worked internationally on whale, dolphin, porpoise, and manatee conservation. Wells has mentored 78 graduate students, led/co-authored more than 350 publications and 870 presentations, and serves on the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission’s Committee of Scientific Advisors and the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group.

Andrea Fuller

Andrea Fuller is a Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her research explores how mammals function in a changing world, with a focus on the physiological mechanisms that underpin resilience to climate change and welfare during conservation interventions. Since her earliest work, she has used temperature bio-logging to probe the function of free-living animals, and now applies a suite of bio-logging tools to reveal links between physiology, behaviour, and welfare. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Conservation Physiology, where she champions approaches that connect physiological insights to real-world conservation outcomes.

Randall Wells

Using a natural laboratory to develop increasingly safe and effective tags for small cetaceans: Results of more than 50 years of telemetry research in Sarasota Bay, Florida

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