Researcher from CCMAR of the University of Algarve receives the prestigious 2017 Marine Fellow prize from the Pew Foundation of the United States
Ester Serrão will receive a $ 150,000 grant to develop a biodiversity conservation program for 3 years by identifying areas of especially high biodiversity in underwater forests of marine plants and brown algae, and will identify opportunities to protect these natural resources. The work is accompanied by initiatives to facilitate citizen participation in the collection of information and monitoring the progress of research.
Reacting to the distinction, which has been awarded for decades to excellent researchers known worldwide for their contributions to marine conservation, Ester Serrão said "... it is a recognition of the global importance of our work and a great incentive for me and for all our team of students, technicians and researchers working hard to increase global knowledge about marine forests. "
Ester Serrão has a Bachelor Honours degree in Biology (1989) and a Masters in Statistics (1992) from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, a PhD in Biology (1996) from the University of Maine in the United States and Habilitation by the University of Algarve (2007) . She is a lecturer at the University of Algarve since 1990 and is currently associate professor and leader of the research group on Marine Ecology, Evolution and Biogeography.
The Pew Marine Conservation Grant Program is part of The Pew Charitable Trusts' environmental science division and provides grants to outstanding natural and social sciences scientists to support innovative projects to develop and implement solutions to the challenges affecting the global ocean.
CCMAR is one of the main Portuguese organizations dedicated to the marine sciences, aimed at the protection of our seas, the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of resources through research, training, dissemination and dissemination of knowledge.
The Pew Charitable Trusts: http://www.pewtrusts.org
CCMAR - Centre for Marine Science: http://ccmar.ualg.pt
University of Algarve: http://www.ualg.pt
Faro, 3 March 2017
contact: ccmar@ualg.pt; aspinto@ualg.pt | ccmar.ualg.pt