​CURRENT POSITION:

03/2013-Present: Scientist at the GEOMAR/Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.   

Funded by the "Future Ocean Cluster of Excellence" initiative of the German Research Foundation (DFG), I have been awarded > €600,000 to conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research I conceived to improve conservation policies for migratory species (using sea turtles as a model group of organisms). 

 

EDUCATION:

​09/2009-02/2013    NERC funded PhD (sea turtle ecology) at Swansea University/NOCS.

In Feb 2013 I defended my PhD thesis which was supervised by Prof Graeme Hays and Prof. Robert Marsh and based at Swansea University through a collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton (NOCS). My PhD involved novel analyses of (1) global satellite tracking datasets of adult sea turtle migrations in combination with the use of (2) Lagrangian drifter buoys and the state-of-the-art Global NEMO ocean model to study the dispersal of hatchling sea turtles.

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09/07-08/08       MSc Biodiversity Conservation: University of Exeter in Cornwall
I received a highly competitive full fee MSc scholarship from the University of Exeter and graduated with a Distinction and Dean’s Commendation. ​Supervised by Prof Brendan Godley, my MSc research project on the worldwide effectiveness of MPAs in encompassing important sea turtle foraging habitats was published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

 
09/03-06/06      BSc Ecology: University of East Anglia
​I graduated with a 1st class honours degree and my Undergraduate dissertation involved 2 months of self generated research at the Bellair’s Research Institute in Barbados. Using SCUBA behavioural data were collected to investigate the form and function of signalling in interspecific mutualisms between cleaning gobies and other Caribbean reef fish.