• distribution of deep-sea corals on seamounts and oceanic islands

• the role of deep-sea corals as habitats for invertebrates

• connectivity of seamount populations using population genetics and phylogeography

• I am interested in all groups of deep-sea ocotocorals, and currently have active genetics projects on Primnoidae (in collaboration with Stephen Cairns), Paragorgiidae and Coralliidae (in collaboration with Juan Sánchez).

___________________________________________________________________________________

Yehuda (Hudi) Benayahu, Ph.D
yehudab@tauex.tau.ac.il
Professor of Marine Biology
The Israel Cohen Chair in Environmental Zoology
Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences
Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, ISRAEL
Tel: +972-3-6409090/7292; Fax: +972-3-6409403
http://www.tau.ac.il/lifesci/departments/zoology/members/benayahu/benayahu.html

My lab group studies taxonomy and biology of Indo-Pacific reef octocorals. An ongoing subject deals reproductive biology and development of octocorals, also in relation to acquisition of symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) by their sexual offspring. We also study recruitment of octocorals on artificial reefs.

Some of the current projects:

1. Diversity and biogeography of octocorals on coral reefs of Taiwan (with L.P. van Ofwegen and C.S. McFadden).

2. Phylogeny of soft corals family Xeniidae (with C.S. McFadden, R. Tonnen, A. Halasz and R. Haverkort).

3. Revision of Xeniidae genera Cespitularia and Efflatounaria.

4. Studies on Lobophyton, Sarcophyton and Sinularia (with L.P. van Ofwegen and C. S. McFadden).

___________________________________________________________________________________

Jaret Bilewitch
jbilewitch at gmail.com or jaret.bilewitch at uqconnect.edu.au
PhD Student (supervisor Assoc. Prof. Sandie Degnan)
University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia

__________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Odalisca Breedy Shadid
odalisca at racsa.co.cr
Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia
Univeridad de Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa Rica

Dr. Stephen Cairns
CAIRNSS at si.edu
Research Scientist
Department of Invertebrate Zoology
Smithsonian Institution
Washington D.C., USA

_________________________________________________________________________________

Chandran Rethnaraj
softcoralchandran at gmail.com
PhD student (supervisor K. Padma kumar)
Dept. of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries
University of Kerala,
Trivandrum, India

http://www.marine.sc.chula.ac.th/staff/suchana/

___________________________________________________________________________________

Jei-Ying Chen
cchen at calacademy.org
Research Assistant, Center for Comparative Genomics
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco, California, USA

_______________________________________________________________________

Dr Tatyana Dautova
tndaut at mail.ru
Senior Researcher
Laboratory of Benthos Ecology
Institute of Marine Biology (IMB) FEB Russian Academy of Sciences
and
Curator of Cnidaria Department
Museum (MIMB) of IMB FEB RAS
and
From Russian side: Head of the Russian-Vietnamese International Laboratory of the Marine Biology and Ecology researches (FEB RAS – VAST)

Institute of Marine Biology (IMB) FEB Russian Academy of Sciences
Vladivostok, Russia

  In Preparation:

“Soft corals of Russian waters of the East Sea (Sea of Japan)”
“Gorgonians of Russian waters of the East Sea (Sea of Japan)"

___________________________________________________________________________________

Luisa Dueñas

luisadue at gmail.com

Ph.D. student (supervisor Ass. Prof. Juan Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes 

Bogotá, Colombia.

• Luisa has been working with Bamboo corals from New Zealand, sub-Antarctic and Antarctic since 2006. She works specially with Isidids from the Keratoisidinae and Mopseinae subfamilies, and her research focuses on molecular phylogeny and taxonomy of this group. Her other interests are character evolution, description of new species found during her research, and phylogeography of big Keratoisidids.

http://biommar.uniandes.edu.co

__________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Peter Etnoyer
peter.etnoyer at noaa.gov
Adjunct Professor
NOAA Deep-Sea Coral Ecology Laboratory, College of Charleston
Mailing address:
NOAA Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
219 Ft Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412

Current Projects:

• Mapping and surveying deep-sea coral habitat using remotely operated vehicles within US National Marine Sanctuaries and other managed areas

• Developing of a national geodatabase of deep-sea coral occurrences with NOAA's Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program

• Assessing health and condition of deep-water octocorals on mesophotic reefs in the northern Gulf of Mexico as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment for Deep-Water Horizon oil spill

• Ongoing review of morphological and molecular systematics in West Atlantic deep-water octocorals

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/oceanage/03etnoyer/welcome.html

_________________________________________________________________________________

Klaus Feussner
feussner_k at usp.ac.fj
Masters Student (supervisor Phil Alderslade)
University of South Pacific, Fiji

________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Scott France
france at louisiana.edu
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

• My interests are in the evolution of deep-sea hard-substrate fauna, using octocorals as a model. My lab group is working on taxonomic, systematic and population-level questions, employing molecular tools for each question. My primary focus is on the bamboo coral subfamily Keratoisidinae (in collaboration with Dr. Les Watling).
• Graduate students in my lab are currently working on Acanthogorgiiidae and the Plexauridae genus Paramuricea (Jana Thoma) and Isididae (Esprit Heestand); past students or postdocs have worked on Chrysogorgiidae (Eric Pante) and Primnoidae (Joris van der Ham).

http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~scf4101/
http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~scf4101/Bambooweb/

__________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Anita George Mary
marineani at rediffmail.com
Marine Scientist
HMR Consultants,
Sultanate of Oman

__________________________________________________________________________________

Ramvilas Ghosh

PhD Scholar
School of Ocean Science and technology
Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies
Kochi, 682506, India

e-mail: amoeba1123@gmail.com, ramvilas@kufos.ac.in

__________________________________________________________________________________

Carlos Gomez Soto

Predoctoral Fellowship (Supervisors Dr. Juan Sanchez (Universidad de los Andes), Dr. Valerie Paul (Smithsonian Institution) and Dr. Chris Langdon (RSMAS-University of Miami))
Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce
Fort Pierce
Florida, USA

http://biommar.uniandes.edu.co

____________________________________________________________________________________

Mohamed Habib
mrhydros35 at hotmail.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Esprit Heestand Saucier
Heestand.Saucier@louisiana.edu
PhD Student (supervisor Dr. Scott France)

Department of Biology
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

I am using genetics and morphology to examine the phylogenetic relationships within the deep-sea bamboo corals (Isididae) and focusing my efforts on the subfamily Keratoisidinae.  I am currently describing new genera and species that have been discovered while working on the family in collaboration with Scott France and Les Watling. 
• I am also interested in the classification and distribution of cnidae within Isididae, and the biogeographic distribution of bamboo corals in the coral triangle. 
• Additionally, I am also interested in genetically assessing population- and species-level differences using the deep-sea bamboo coral Acanella as a model.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Santiago Herrera
sherrera at whoi.edu
PhD student (supervisor Dr Tim Shank)
MIT-WHOI Joint Program
Biology Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, Massachusetts

• Diversity characterization, ecology and population connectivity of deep-water gorgonians in the Coral Triangle
• Population genomics and phylogenetics
• Molecular systematics, phylogeography of bubblegum corals, Paragorgiidae (in collaboration with Juan Sanchez and Amy Baco)

http://www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/tshank/members/sherrera.htm

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Beth Horvath
horvath at westmont.edu
Assistant Professor of Biology
Westmont College
and
Research Associate
Invertebrate Labs
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Santa Barbara, CA, USA

• Extensive overview of gorgonian fauna of the CA Bight in final edits (mid 2012). Major re-working on the genera Swiftia and Muricea are included, along with new location records for several species, and potential new species included as well.
• Description of a new species in the genus Leptogorgia came out in April 2011 (Proceedings of the Bio. Soc. of WA); am now working on several other possible new species descriptions from the eastern Pacific (western United States, CA to Alaska).
• Workshop power point done for SCAMIT workshop in March, 2012 is soon to be posted on the SCAMIT website, taxonomic toolbox location
• Consulting and identification work ongoing for NOAA and federal fisheries and wildlife folks in Alaska, WA State, Oregon, northern CA and North Carolina. As well, large lot of samples from Mazatlan (Laboratorio de Invertebrados Bentonicos, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) undergoing examination for identification.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Tran Quoc Hung
hungimer at gmail.com
Marine Research Officer
Department of Marine Conservation and Biodiversity
Institute of Marine Environment and Resources (IMER)
Haiphong City, Vietnam

• Biodiversity and conservation in general in Vietnam
• Soft coral taxonomy, ecology of soft coral and biochemical in Alcyoniidae family
• Conservation and restoration of coral reefs

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Yukimitsu Imahara
imahara at kuroshio.or.jp or imaharay at k.email.ne.jp
Wakayama Laboratory, Biological Institute on Kuroshio
(Kuroshio Biological Research Foundation)
Wakayama-shi, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

• Taxonomy of Japanese octocorals, revision of some alcyonacean and pennatulacean genera such as Scleronephthya, Anthomastus and Halipteris

http://www.kuroshio.or.jp

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Fumihito Iwase
iwase at kuroshio.or.jp

Institute Head,
Biological Institute on Kuroshio (Kuroshio Biological Research Foundation)
Otsuki-Town, Kochi, Japan


• Distribution of the gorgonians in Japan and the influence of the Kuroshio Current.

http://www.kuroshio.or.jp

______________________________________________________________________________________

 



Michael Janes
contact@aquatouch.com
President & Senior Aquarist
AquaTouch
Phoenix, Arizona, USA

• Family Xeniidae; Histology, Taxonomy, ex situ culture

http://octocoralresearch.com/

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Dr Samuel Kahng
skahng at hpu.edu
Associate Professor of Oceanography (as of autumn 2012)
Hawaii Pacific University at the Oceanic Institute
Marine Science Program Office
Waimanalo, Hawaii

• I have published a review of octocoral reproduction with Hudi Benayahu and Howard Lasker. Kahng SE, Benayahu Y, Lasker H (2011) Sexual reproduction in Octocorallia. Marine Ecology Progress Series 443:265-283
• My grad student (Paula Lam Berger) is currently preparing her manuscript for submission "Sexual reproduction in an endemic octocoral (Sarcothelia edmondsoni) in Hawaii-
• I am currently investigating deep-water coral community development and change across time using submarine lava flows of known ages on the leeward flank of the Big Island of Hawaii

http://www.hpu.edu/CNCS/Faculty_Staff/CV/SamuelKahngCV.html

______________________________________________________________________________________



Abby Lapointe
abbylap at hawaii.edu
PhD student (supervisor Les Watling)
Department of Zoology (Biology)
University of Hawaii at Manoa

Systematics and biogeography of the bamboo corals from the deep sea off Tasmania

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

 



Samatha Lee

lee_mw23 at yahoo.com
Environmental Consultant
Environmental Resources Management Hong Kong (ERM-HK)
Hong Kong

• Finished my master degree and worked as a research assistant in Chinese University of Hong Kong, conducted a study commissioned by Hong Kong Government in establishing a reference collection and verifying the species diversity and distribution of octocorals in Hong Kong waters.
• Currently working for an environment consultant company, helping to assess the species diversity and abundance of certain octocoral communities in Asia-Pacific areas.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr Pablo López-González
pjlopez at us.es
Profesor Titular de Universidad (Associate Professor)
Biodiversidad y Ecologia de Invertebrados, Marinos Departamento de Fisiología y Zoología
Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla
Sevilla, Spain

• I have currently a PhD student (Rebeca Zapata) working on Antarctic and SubAntarctic primnoids (especially Thouarella and related genera), and other students are starting to work (last year of their academic studies) on taxonomic characters from the soft parts in scleractinians, reproduction of Antarctic octocorals, and population dynamic of littoral sea anemones.
• My current research projects on octocorals are related to polar (especially Antarctic), deep-sea, and littoral Atlantic-Mediterranean fauna. Octocoral taxonomy and biogeography are my main interests. During the last years, descriptions of new or confused species in the literature on most octocoral groups (except for Helioporacea) have been published
• I have just send a ms on gorgonians from the Gulf of Cadiz (North Eastern Atlantic) and Mediterranean, I'm now working on another Antarctic gorgonian, and close to me I have the next two soft-coral species to be worked, one is from South Azores and the other from Guinea-Bissau

http://beim.us.es/ecoantha/BEIM/beim.htm

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr. Asako K. Matsumoto

amatsu@gorgonian.jp

Associate Professor

Faculty of Economics and Informatics, Educational Foundation SHOUHEIKOU

Higashi Nippon International University

37 Suganezawa, Kamata, Taira, Iwaki, Fukushima 970-8023, Japan

 

Planetary Exploration Research Center (PERC)

Chiba Institute of Technology (Chitech)

Tsudanuma 2-17-1, Narashino, Chiba 275-0016, Japan

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Current Projects: Systematics of the gorgonian genus Melithaea (Melithaeidae) in Japan
• Systematics and biogeograpy of the north-west Pacific Cold-Water Octocoral (Primnoidae).
• Growth rate and carbonate production of CWOC.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________



Dr Catherine McFadden
Catherine_Mcfadden at hmc.edu
Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor
Department of Biology
Harvey Mudd College
Claremont, California, USA

• My lab group is working on molecular systematics of a wide variety of octocoral groups across a variety of taxonomic levels, although our primary taxonomic focus continues to be shallow-water alcyoniid soft corals.  As part of the NSF Cnidarian Tree of Life project (and in collaboration with Dr. Scott France) we are constructing a molecular phylogeny of Octocorallia with representatives of as many families and genera of octocorals as we have been able to obtain.  We have also been constructing genus and species-level phylogenies to try to understand the relationships of soft corals in the family Alcyoniidae, and to use molecular phylogenetic relationships to identify new, phylogenetically informative characters for morphological identification of alcyoniids.  We are also compiling a database of molecular "barcodes" for octocorals (based on mitochondrial msh1 and COI sequences), and have consequently been opportunistically sequencing any material we receive, of known and unknown taxonomic affinity.
• Some ongoing projects:

1. Development and testing of nuclear barcoding markers for octocorals.
2. Molecular phylogenetics of the soft coral family Xeniidae (with Y. Benayahu, A. Halasz, M. Janes)
3. Revisions of the soft coral fauna of South Africa (with L. van Ofwegen)
4. Evolution of mitochondrial gene order in Octocorallia

____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr Tina N. Molodtsova
tina at ocean.ru
Senior Scientist
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS
Moscow, Russia

• A revision of the genus Anthomastus, North Atlantic, hopefully extending worldwide

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Kirrily Moore
moorekm at utas.edu.au or kirrily.moore at csiro.au
PhD student (supervisors Dr Phil Alderslade and Dr Karen Miller)
University of Tasmania
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Tasmania, Australia

• Revision of the taxonomy and phylogeny of Primnoisis in the Southern Ocean
• Revision of the taxonomy and phylogeny of Anthothela worldwide
• Phylogeography of certain taxa from the Tasmanian seamounts, some sub Antarctic Islands and eastern Antarctica continental shelf

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Mohammed Zawid Naseem

zawid at sify.com
Coordinator of Sciences, Math. & Tech. Departments,
Qatar Leadership Academy,
Qatar Foundation
PO BOX- 24421, DOHA, QATAR.

• Teaching and supervision of student research project (IB DP Biology & Env. Systems)

__________________________________________________________________________________



Dr Katherine Muzik
kmuzik at gmail.com
Associate in Natural History
Bishop Museum
Director, Kulu Wai
Kaua'i, Hawai'i

Research Interests

I would like to FINALLY publish results from the 1970s of Octocorallia I collected and studied via manned submersible and SCUBA diving off Oahu and Hawai'i, most likely publishing in collaboration with Sonia Rowley. My ancient taxonomic work for my PhD might still be pertinent!

•  I am also writing proposals to study the Octocorallia of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which is newly threatened by US Navy plans to increase their use of sonar and munitions explosions in the area. My colleagues and I hope to conduct basic studies on Hawaiian Octocoral fauna (their systematics, functional genomics and distribution, especially of the tantalizing twilight zone, now more reachable with improved rebreather technology) as well as applied research on the effects of military activities on octocorals, especially their growth, and their nervous and reproductive systems.

• Meanwhile, I am helping write reports on Octocorallia from Japanese waters, for publication alongside my Japanese colleague, Dr. Masanori Nonaka. We have just described two new species of Corallium and he has recently brought to light several interesting and important Japanese studies from over a century ago.  He recently presented two of our new papers for publication in the Proceedings of the International Congress for Precious Corals, held in Kochi this year (2012).

• I have also created my independent environmental education institute, named Kulu Wai (Hawaiian for "Water Drop"), to share my love for the sea with children, and to help them understand and counteract the perils we humans are ceaselessly and carelessly inflicting upon the oceans.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr Masanori Nonaka
m-nonaka at okichura.jp or masanori.nonaka at gmail.com

Curator
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (Okinawa Expo Aquarium)
Okinawa, Japan

Current Project:

. Taxonomy and distribution of Japanese Octocorallia, especially Coralliidae (with Katherine Muzik).

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Laura Núnez Pons
lauguau at gmail.com
PhD student
University of Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain

• Chemical ecology of Antarctic invertebrates, (Porifera, Cnidaria and Tunicata)
• Taxonomy of some Octocorals from Antarctica (Alcyonium, Thouarella, Fannyella and Primnoisis).

 ________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr Leen van Ofwegen 
ofwegen at yahoo.com
Curator of Coelenterata
National Museum of Natural History Naturalis
Leiden, Netherlands

* Revision of the soft coral genera Litophyton, Nephthea and Stereonephthya.

*The position of the centre of maximum octocoral biodiversity in the Indo-Pacific.

*Melithaeids of the Indo-Pacific

*Revision of Bebryce

*Revison of Solenocaulon (with Kaveh Samimi Namin)

*Nidalia of the shallow water of the Indo-Pacific (with Kaveh Samimi Namin)

*Several studies on Sinularia (with Yehuda Benayahu)

http://science.naturalis.nl/research/people/cv/ofwegen

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Sebastian Overmans
sebastian.overmans at gmail.com
MSc Marine Biology student (supervisor Prof. DJ Smith and Dr DJ Suggett)
University of Essex
Colchester, UK
I am studying how soft corals of the genera Sarcophyton, Sinularia and Lobophytum change their endosymbiotic relationship/photobiology in response to thermal stress and what impact restricted acclimatisation might have on their ecological niche width in future climates

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 



 

Eric Pante
pante.eric at gmail.com
Post-doctoral researcher at Université de La Rochelle
Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs)
Université de La Rochelle
La Rochelle, France

Group editor for the Octocorallia at Zootaxa (http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/taxa/Coelenterata.html


Research interests:

• Evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, biogeography, population genetics, genomics
• Place of origin of deep-sea and shallow calcaxonians
• Phylogenetics and global biogeography of the Chrysogorgiidae (Calcaxonia)
• Population connectivity among Chrysogorgia species (Chrysogorgiidae) using next-generation sequencing (NGS)
• Molecular systematics of Chrysogorgia, with focus on NW Atlantic and SW Pacific species pools
• Phylogenetics and taxonomy of the genus Chrysogorgia (Calcaxonia: Chrysogorgiidae) (global geographical scale, with focus on NW Atlantic and SW Pacific species pools)
• Taxonomic re-description of Isidoides (Calcaxonia)

http://epante.wordpress.com/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0038357

 

___________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr. Carlos Daniel Perez
cdperez at ufpe.br
Director of GPA - Anthozoan Research Group
Curator of the octocoral collection of the Department of Oceanography of the UFPE
Professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco, Brazil

• Biology and ecology of the clavulariid Carijoa riisei in northeastern region of Brazil
• Systematic and biogeography of octocorals of Southweastern Atlantic Ocean
• Revision morpho-molecular of the genus Muriceopsis (with Dr. Juan Amador Sánchez)

www.ufpe.br/gpa

___________________________________________________________________________________

 

Andrea M. Quattrini
andrea.quattrini at temple.edu
PhD student (supervisor Dr Erik Cordes)
Temple University
Philadelphia, USA

• The genetic connectivity of deepwater gorgonians in the Gulf of Mexico (and beyond) focusing on Callogorgia americana delta, collaborating with Peter Etnoyer.

http://astro.temple.edu/~ecordes/

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Bastian T. Reijnen (on the right above)
Reijnen at naturalis.nl
Associate Researcher
National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis
Leiden, The Netherlands
Supervisor: Dr. L.P. van Ofwegen

• Ovulid snails associated with Octocorallians in the Indo-Pacific

• Revision of the Indo-Pacific Acanthogorgiidae, with special reference to the Siboga Expedition (1899-1900) specimens.

http://science.naturalis.nl/research/people/cv/reijnen

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Dr. Sonia Rowley
soniajrowley at gmail.com

Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii

• My PhD research focused on the ecology and characterization of gorgonian taxa within the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia.
• Using the zooxanthellate Isidid Isis hippuris (Linnaeus 1758), my research further investigates potential environmental influences on intra-specific morphological and endosymbiotic variability. This is achieved through the utilization of specific molecular markers, photoacclimation responses and C/N ratio comparisons for both host and endosymbiont(s).
• Past research has investigated the potential cause(s) of disease reported on the protected seafan Eunicella verrucosa (Pallas 1766) in the UK. This research incorporated ecological, microbial (culture and non-culture) and chemical techniques.
• I also work on deep sea gorgonian taxa around the NWHI with Prof. Les Watling,  and others at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Íris Sampaio
Irisfs at gmail.com

Research interests:

Deep-water octocorals' biodiversity, taxonomy and conservation focusing on the Azorean islands and intervening seamounts. Until now, fishing impacts on these communities have been my study goal. During one year of Licenciatura (5years degree) training I have done a systematic study on Horta harbour (Faial, Azores), gathering the benthic fauna caught by long-line fisheries. Bottom long-line fishery surveys allowed me to validate the horizontal and vertical distribution of the by-caught deep-water corals.

The taxonomy interest came along with the identification of the deep-water corals of COLETA, DOP-UAZ (reference collection of the department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores)and M@rbis, EMAM (reference collection from the Mission for Maritime Affairs) and two workshops of taxonomy with Dr. Oscar Ocaña.

I am developing a Catalogue and identification guide of deep-sea Alcyonacea and Pennatulacea of the Azores archipelago (NE Atlantic).

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Dr Juan A. Sánchez
juansanc at uniandes.edu.co
Profesor Asociado
Director de Investigaciones y Posgrados
and
Director - Laboratorio de Biologia Molecular Marina (BIOMMAR)
Departamento Ciencias Biologicas-Facultad de Ciencias, 
Universidad de los Andes
Bogota, Colombia


Since I was a graduate student I have been interested in the evolutionary biology of octocorals. I have been working in octocoral taxonomy and systematics as a by-product of molecular phylogenetic studies, which I think is a worthwhile approach. Currently, I am studying questions such as: What is the impact of past reticulate evolution for the current octocoral diversity? What are the drivers of octocoral character evolution? What are the rates of morphological and molecular evolution in both shallow- and deep-sea octocorals? Likewise, what processes did promote speciation in shallow- and deep-sea octocorals? What are the evolutionary consequences for species with reproductive strategies such as brooding or broadcast spawning? Luckily, among the great diversity of octocorals there are many groups suitable to answer these questions, which have been part of our past and current octocoral studies, such as bubble-gum corals (Paragorgiidae), precious corals (Corallidae), bamboo corals (Isididae), and gorgonian corals (Plexauridae and Gorgoniidae). I should remark that it is impossible to get progress in octocoral evolution unless you careful study their intricate taxonomy and biology. My research group has been focusing in the octocoral faunas at both sides of Colombia (Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific) and the fauna from New Zealand, the Ross Sea (Antarctica) and the Southern Ocean in general. I am also interested in the phylogeography of a number of deep-sea brooder species (Primnoidae). I have also been tempted by a number of ecological questions in octocorals that became apparent with the current environmental conditions. See our recent publications at:
http://biommar.uniandes.edu.co

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Elia Sanmartãn-Paya
elia at klanformiga.com
Writing up PhD (Universitat de Valencia, Spain)
Currently in Sydney, Australia

• Octocorals from Iceland

______________________________________________________________________________________

 

(with P. Alderslade)

Dr Monika Schlacher-Hoenlinger
MonikaS at qm.qld.gov.au
Research Scientist
Sessile Marine Invertebrate Section
Queensland Museum
Brisbane, Australia

I am a researcher of the Australian node of the CReefs project (a global census of coral reefs), which includes a network of researchers engaged in a long term initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans.

In this position my primary aims are 1) to comprehensively document the tropical Octocorallia fauna of the Australian East and West Coast, and 2) to undertake taxonomic research to develop a specialization in some families of octocorals prevalent in tropical reefs

______________________________________________________________________________________



Anne Simpson

anne.simpson at maine.edu
PhD student (supervisor Dr Les Watling)
University of Maine
Orono, Maine, U.S.A.


Over the last several years I’ve been studying reproduction in the following families of deep-water octocorals: Chyrsogorgiidae, Paramuricidae, Paragorgiidae, and Corallidae. Most of the species I’m working on were collected from NW Atlantic seamounts.  My work generally examines basic reproductive biology, with a focus on comparative gametogenesis.

______________________________________________________________________________________

 

Susana Soto de Matos-Pita
soto at uvigo.es
PhD student (supervisor Dr. Fran Ramil)
Universidad de Vigo
Vigo. España

My thesis work deals with Octocorals collected by Spanish Antarctic Expeditions (BENTART) carried out during the years 1994, 1995, 2003 and 2006 in West Antarctica (South Shetlands, Antarctic Peninsula and Bellingshausen Sea). Biogeography of the identified species will be treated too.

______________________________________________________________________________________

 



 

Dr Michelle Taylor
Postdoctoral Researcher - Deep Sea Ecology
 michelle.taylor@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Department of Zoology,
University of Oxford,
Tinbergen Building,
South Parks Road,
Oxford, OX1 3PS


Having previously studied the Thouarella genus in detail, undertook phylogenetic analysis of Octocorallia, studied Primnoidae of the sub-Antarctic in relation to by-catch from the Patagonian toothfish fishery, and worked on global habitat suitability models for octocorals, I am now studying benthic communities of seamounts in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Please see my new website for more details: http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/group/oceans/people/MT.html

______________________________________________________________________________________

Olga Lucía Torres Suárez
helga.lucila25 at gmail.com
Masters student (supervisor Ass. Prof.  Juan Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia

• Pseudopterogorgia and hybridization

http://biommar.uniandes.edu.co

____________________________________________________________________________________



Yosephine Tuti Hermanlimianto
yostuti at yahoo.co.id

Indonesian Institute for Sciences
Jakarta, Indonesia

• Working at the Research Centre for Oceanography-Indonesian Institute of Sciences since 1986, on corals, especially on gorgonians.
• Now I am working on gorgonians biodiversity in Indonesia. Identifying some gorgonians with the help from Dr. Leen van Ofwegen and Dr Phil Alderslade.
• In 2008 at Naturalis, doing Melithaeids from Indonesia and some other families, not finished yet.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Tzu-Hsuan Tu

cerves at gmail.com

PhD student (Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan)

I am working on the systematics of Coralliidae.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen T. Viada
sviada at conshelf.com
Senior Scientist
CSA International, Inc.
8502 SW Kansas Avenue
Stuart, Florida  34997  USA

• Distribution and taxonomy of deep water octocorals of the Gulf of Mexico.

_____________________________________________________________________________________



Dr Voranop Viyakarn
voranop.v at chula.ac.th
Associate Professor, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand

• Diversity of octocorals in the Gulf of Thailand

____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr Les Watling
watling at hawaii.edu
Professor of Zoology,
University of Hawaii at Manoa,
and
Emeritus Professor,
University of Maine.

• I am studying the deep-sea octocorals of the North Atlantic and Central Pacific, primarily focusing on a few families or genera that we have collected. Our work began in 2003 with seamount dives using the submersible Alvin on the New England seamounts, located off the US east coast. Since then we have done either Alvin or ROV (Hercules) dives on 15 seamounts from Bear Smt in the west to Corner Rise on the eastern end of this chain. We collected more than 400 specimens which will be deposited either at Yale Peabody Museum or in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Contrary to expectations most of our specimens are new to science and are in the process of being described. These include new species of Iridogorgia, Rhodaniridogorgia (new genus, 1 species), Corallium (in prep), Paragorgia (in prep), Acanthogorgia, Chrysogorgia (in prep), and a large number of bamboo corals whose identities are still being worked out.
• In 2009 we dove off the Bahamas using the ROV Global Explorer and collected a large number of additional new species, primarily in the Keratoisidinae. With the Scott France lab, we are using both molecular and morphological criteria to establish genera and species boundaries.
• Our future work will encompass more of the deep corals from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and additional material collected in the eastern Pacific.
• In addition, we are developing GIS databases for species in the Chrysogorgiidae and Isididae, with all records checked for nomenclatural changes, etc.

http://www.dmc.maine.edu/sites/watlingsite/PAGES/index.html

____________________________________________________________________________________

 



Dr Gary C. Williams

gwilliams@calacademy.org

Curator
Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco, California, USA

Research Professor
Department of Biology
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, California, USA

• Phylogenetic affinities of gorgonians and sea pens.
• New shallow-water octocoral taxa from the west coast of North America.
• Pennatulacean octocorals of the world -- a revision
• Mesophotic and deep-sea octocorals from California
• Pennatulacean global diversity.
• Octocoral diversity in the northern Philippines.
• Maintenance of the Octocoral Research Center website: http://research.calacademy.org/research/izg/orc_home.html

___________________________________________________________________________________

 

MaLi Xiubao
coralreef at scsio.ac.cn
South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS
China

• I have done some work on taxonomy of gorgonians. Meanwhile, I want to study the taxonomy of soft corals. We have already collected a lot of samples of octocorals in our museum. The research is mainly on nearby mainland  Seas （Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi）, Hainan Island (such as Sanya) and South China Sea. I have a small fund on taxonomy of Family Ellisellidae from South China Sea.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 



Rebeca Zapata Guardiola
rzapata at us.es
PhD student (supervisor Ass. Prof.  Pablo López-González)
Universidad de Sevilla
Sevilla, Spain

• Taxonomy of Antarctic octocorals focused in family Primnoidae and mainly in genus Thouarella.

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

Mohammed Zawid Naseem

zawid at sify.com


Coordinator of Sciences, Math. & Tech. Departments,
Qatar Leadership Academy,
Qatar Foundation
PO BOX- 24421, DOHA, QATAR.

Teaching and supervision of student research project (IB DP Biology & Env. Systems)

____________________________________________________________________________________