Speaker Profiles
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Kathy BelpaemeHead of the Co-ordination Centre for Integrated Coastal Zone Management |
Work Experience:
1996-1998: PhD researcher at the Free University of Brussels
(topic: Genetic effects of marine pollutants on flatfish).
1998-2001: Project coordinator for a European Coastal Zone
Management project, named TERRA-Coastal Zone Management.
2001-today: Head of the Co-ordination Centre for Integrated
Coastal Zone Management in Belgium.
Expertise as it relates to subject of presentation:
During 2004 Kathy Belpaeme was responsible for drawing up the Coastal
Atlas for the Belgian coast. In 2005 she was responsible for supervising
the establishment of the on-line version.
Professional Activities:
As head of the Co-ordination Centre for Integrated Coastal Zone Management
(ICZM), Kathy Belpaeme deals with a diversity of tasks implementing the European
Recommendation on ICZM. The tasks are very diverse, ranging from local awareness
raising, follow-up of European developments concerning the coast, implementing
the EU ICZM Recommendation, to co-ordinating and advising coastal policy actions.
Marcia R. BermanDirector, Comprehensive Coastal Inventory Program, Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science |
Marcia Berman came to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in
1989 to direct the newly legislated Comprehensive Coastal Inventory
Program, a GIS and remote sensing program. The Coastal Inventory
is charged with mapping conditions along the 16,100 km (10,000 miles)
of tidal shoreline in Virginia. This effort has expanded to include
the state of Maryland and parts of North Carolina.
Through additional grant and contract activities, Marcia has broadened
the program to include the development of GIS based decision support
tools to enhance coastal management at the local and regional planning
levels within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. In addition to her research
interests in applied coastal science she has active research initiatives
in the areas of shallow water use conflict, ecosystem risk assessment,
and remotely sensed assessment techniques for wetland habitat valuation.
Marcia is a coastal geologist by training with a graduate degree in Oceanography
from the School of Oceanography at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
In her spare time she enjoys running, travel, and sailing.
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Dru ClarkResearch Associate, Geological Data Center, Scripps Institution |
Dru Clark is involved in a host of projects as a researcher software developer, computer animator, video producer, and webmaster at the Geological Data Center of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He holds a B.S. in Engineering Science and an M.S. in Applied Mechanics, both from the University of California, San Diego.
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Kevin ColcombSenior Scientific Officer, Counter Pollution and Response Branch of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency |
Kevin graduated in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia at
Norwich in 1985, after which he worked at the UK Warren Spring Laboratory
on a number of research projects in the field of maritime pollution. Those
projects included the fate of oil at sea, the development of clean-up techniques
for all types of shorelines and the application of dispersants to maritime
oil spills.
In 1993 Kevin joined the Marine Pollution Control Unit, now Counter Pollution
Branch of the MCA. His current responsibilities are primarily to ensure timely
response to marine oil spills in UK waters, and to provide technical and scientific
advice for dealing with marine pollution in general. He is also responsible
for providing advice to local authorities on all aspects of marine and shoreline
pollution through exercises and training courses. He is at present supervising
several research projects aimed at improving the preparedness of UK agencies
in responding to marine pollution incidents.
Kevin was involved in the last three significant UK oil spills, the ROSE BAY,
the BRAER and the SEA EMPRESS incidents as well as the ERIKA and PRESTIGE
spills. Current activities are centred around forging links with other statutory
government bodies in the area of response to maritime incidents in line with
the new National Contingency Plan. He is presently working with the UK environmental
regulators, nature conservation bodies and fisheries departments in the areas
of coastal protection, waste disposal and the setting up of standing environment
groups on a regional basis throughout the UK.
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Valerie CumminsManager, Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork |
Valerie Cummins B.Sc., M.Sc. is manager of the Coastal and Marine Resources
Centre. This currently involves the coordination of 18 research staff working
in 20 EU and nationally funded projects and commercial contracts. In addition
to project management, Ms. Cummins has considerable expertise in GIS as a
tool for managing many aspects of the complex coastal environment, as well
as a thorough understanding of issues pertaining to Integrated Coastal Management.
Ms. Cummins is actively engaged in research in these areas. She coordinates
two Strategic Research Areas within UCC’s Environmental Research Institute
(Modelling and GIS and Environmental Management). She also represents UCC
on the CHIU/Marine Liaison Group committee.
In addition to research, Val coordinates the delivery of the ICZM module to
UCC’s Geography Masters Students and acts as a guest lecturer for the
Fisheries MSc course. She is also on the editorial panel of the international
Marine Policy journal published by Elsevier.
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Renee Davis-BornPolicy Analyst and Project Manager with the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University |
Renee earned her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science at Allegheny College,
and went on to pursue a M.S. in Wildlife Science at OSU. Her background includes
watershed assessment and monitoring, terrestrial ecology, and scientific writing.
Currently, Renee focuses her work on the application of science to inform
decision-making, primarily through the development of digital libraries that
focus on natural resources in Oregon’s water basins.
Before joining the INR, Renee was Policy and Outreach Coordinator with the
Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, a university-based
research consortium focused on coastal-ocean research and policy-relevant
outreach.
Ned DwyerRemote sensing Specialist, Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork |
Ned has a MSc and a PhD in Remote Sensing. He has worked for many years with both
optical and radar satellite data for a range of applications including fire
detection, rice mapping and natural disaster monitoring.
Since joining the CMRC in 2002 he has been working on development of the
Marine Irish Digital Atlas - a web-enabled GIS
for the presentation of data and
information on the Irish coast. Activities have included project management,
atlas design, dataset sourcing and preparation and development of educational
and informational elements.
He also contributes to teaching in University College Cork’s Department
of Geography, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, on remote sensing
and GIS. Since December 2005, Ned is in receipt of a fellowship from the Environmental
Protection Agency to work on aspects of climate change research related to
the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS).
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John EvansInformation Services and Development Manager, Marine Institute |
John is Information Services and Development Manager with the Marine Institute.
John is responsible for teams working in data management, software development
and IT Operations. One of his responsibilities is to advise the directors
of the Institute on IT strategy. Most recently this has focused on the development
of the knowledge management section of the National Research and Innovation
Strategy for the Marine Sector 2007-2013.
Together with his management team, John directs and manages the delivery of
various IT programmes, prepares IT and Information Service related budgets,
and manages & directs external IT suppliers.
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Tanya HaddadCoastal Atlas Project, Oregon Coastal Management Program |
Tanya has an Master of Environmental Management degree in Coastal Environmental
Management from Duke University. She has worked at the OCMP since fall 1998,
the first 2 years as a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow working on the Dynamic
Estuary Management Information System (DEMIS), and subsquently on Dawn's NSF
grant to construct the Oregon Coastal Atlas. She currently maintains and updates
the Atlas and is always looking at ways to improve it.
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Trevor HarrisonMarine Biologist, Aquatic Sciences, Natural Heritage Conservation |
Trevor Harrison works for the Environment and Heritage Service, an agency within
the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland. Aquatic Sciences is
a relatively new initiative within the Conservation Science Functional Unit
and Trevor is employed as a marine biologist within this unit. Trevor is involved
in surveying and monitoring marine habitats and species within Northern Ireland
to assist in the identification and designation of conservation areas as well
as to monitor the condition of existing marine conservation areas. Prior to
moving to EHS, Trevor worked as an estuarine ecologist for the South African
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
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John HellySan Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego |
Dr. John Helly is a scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the
University of California, San Diego where he leads the Earth System Science
program there. Dr. Helly has a PhD in Computer Science from UCLA, an MS in
Biostatistics also from UCLA and an MA and BA from Occidental College in Biology.
He has research interests in enivironmental and ecological modeling, remote
sensing, and visualization.
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Paul KlarinSenior Policy Analyst, Oregon Coastal Management Program |
Paul has worked in a variety of capacities as administrator, permit and regulatory
review and planner for the past 16 + years. A program description can be found
at http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/OCMP/about_us.shtml
He has a BA from U.C. Santa Barbara in public administration and political
science, and a MSc from University of Washington, College of Oceans and Fisheries,
School of Marine Affairs.
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Tony LaVoiChief, Coastal Information and Application Services (CIAS) Division, |
Tony LaVoi is the Chief of the Coastal Information and Application Services (CIAS)
Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal
Services Center in Charleston, South Carolina. The Coastal Services Center
was established in 1995 with a mission to support the environmental, social,
and economic well being of the coast by linking people, information, and technology.
The Center assists its primary customers, the United State’s coastal
resource managers, by providing access to information, technology, and training.
The CIAS division focuses its efforts on geospatial standards and interoperability,
software application and database development, Internet programming and visualization,
and network and desktop IT support.
Tony also serves as the NOAA representative to the Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC), the Geospatial One-Stop Board of Directors, and the Ocean.US
Data Management and Communications Steering Team. He chairs both the NOAA
GIS Committee and the Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee of the
FGDC, and leads the development of the National Ocean Service Data Explorer
GIS data portal.
Tony is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Engineering, is
married, and has two children, Elise (8) and MacDougall (5).
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Stephen MillerHead of the Geological Data Center at the Scripps Institution of |
Steve Miller is the Head of the Geological Data Center at the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography. The Geological Data Center is responsible for the online
archiving of nearly 800 seagoing SIO expeditions since the 1950's. A recent
award from the Library of Congress and NSF supports the extension of the SIOExplorer
approach to Woods Hole cruises, Alvin dives and ROV expeditions. The digital
library technology for these projects, developed in collaboration with the
San Diego Supercomputer Center, also supports a long-term contract for the
IODP Site Survey Data Bank, facilitating the review of data for proposals
as they evolve from ideas to expeditions, serving the needs of 1000 investigators
from 40 countries.
Miller’s seagoing career began in high school with a lead-line survey
for the Sea Lab II aquanaut habitat in La Jolla Canyon. While an undergraduate
at UCSD (Physics) he continued to work with Dr. Spiess and the Deep Tow group
at SIO. After graduate school at MIT (Geophysics) he returned to SIO for 7
years of exploration of the deep sea floor, followed by 13 years at UCSB.
He has participated in 30 oceanographic expeditions, including Alvin submersible
dives to 3000 meters near the Galapagos, and several cruises to Easter Island.
He has sailed six (but not seven) seas.
The years 1993-2000 were spent in the private sector. Projects included: leading
a software development group for multibeam seafloor mapping and visualization
at Sea Beam Instruments (Boston); global fiberoptic cable system design at
SAIC (Newport, RI); and regional fiberoptic cable design, permitting and installation
with Global Photon (San Diego). For further information, see:
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Liz O'DeaGIS Specialist / MIDA Manager, Coastal & Marine Resources Centre, |
Liz has been working in GIS since 1996. She has a BA in environmental science
from Willamette University, and a MSc in Geography from Oregon State University.
She has mapped mountain tops, seabed and the space between. Four years working
at Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon gave her a strong knowledge base in
GIS, which she then used to explore the world of web GIS at Oregon State University
during her Master’s research. There she developed a sea floor web GIS
for the Virtual Research Vessel, as well as the Tahoma Virtual Atlas - a tool
for a Seattle-area high school to incorporate community mapping into their
science education.
Liz has worked at the CMRC since 2002, when she was hired to co-coordinate
the creation of the Marine Irish Digital Atlas (MIDA).
During that time she has overseen web design, atlas design
and web GIS implementation, as well as being involved in other related issues (e.g. data
and metadata acquisition and processing, database development, Open Source). She is now
the manager of the MIDA project.
Among her other activities with the CMRC, Liz has been involved with the
Irish Coastal Mapping Forum, investigating methods for integrated coastal
mapping. She guest lectures in UCC's GIS courses and is a member of the Executive
Committee for the Irish Organisation for Geographic Information (IRLOGI).
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Kuuipo WalshGIS Analyst, Institute for Natural Resources, Oregon State University |
Kuuipo Walsh received her Master of Science degree in Marine Resource Management
from Oregon State University in 2002. She is currently a GIS Analyst for the
Institute for Natural Resources (INR).
Kuuipo's research interests include marine and coastal geographic information
systems, particularly spatial analysis, metadata and Web GIS.
Kuuipo served as a technical project assistant for the Umpqua Basin Explorer,
North Coast Explorer and the Willamette Basin Explorer. Before joining INR,
Kuuipo was a Data/Metadata Librarian in Dawn Wright's Seafloor Mapping Marine
and Coastal GIS Laboratory. Kuuipo is a founding member of the Oregon Chapter
of the Society for Conservation GIS.
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Dawn WrightProfessor of Geography and Oceanography and Director of the Davey |
Dawn’s research interests include geographic information science, benthic terrain
and habitat characterization, tectonics of mid-ocean ridges, and the processing
and interpretation of high-resolution bathymetry and underwater videography/
photography. She has completed oceanographic fieldwork in some of the most geologically-active
regions of the planet, including the East Pacific Rise, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,
the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the Tonga Trench, and volcanoes under the Japan Sea
and the Indian Ocean. She has dived three times in the deep submergence vehicle
"Alvin" and twice in the "Pisces V." She serves on the
editorial boards of the "International Journal of Geographical Information
Science," "Transactions in GIS," and "Geospatial Solutions,"
as well as on the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Geophysical and
Environmental Data.
Dawn's most recent books include "Undersea with GIS" (published by
ESRI Press, 2002), "Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems"
(with Darius Bartlett, Taylor & Francis, 2000), and "Place Matters:
Geospatial Tools for Marine Science, Conservation, and Management in the Pacific
Northwest" (with Astrid Scholz, Oregon State University Press, 2005).















