Short profiles for all the presenters are provided below

Mark Higgins
Lead Educator

Training Manager at EUMETSAT. Educator and meteorologist. He is on the management group of the WMO CGMS VLab, the executive board of COMET and is the chair of COCOM the global meteorological and hydrological training group.

Helen Czerski
Presenter / Physicist and Oceanographer

A Physicist, Oceanographer and Broadcaster. She is currently a Research Fellow in the department of mechanical engineering at University College London.

Hayley Evers-King
Presenter / Marine Earth Observation Scientist

Marine Earth Observation Scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory(PML).  Her educational background in environmental science and oceanography has been developed to focus on Earth observation - particularly the use of ocean colour in both water quality and ecosystem research.

Lotfi Aouf
Scientist

Scientist at Météo France. He is an expert in wind and waves and is part of the Services and Forecasting Systems Programme Area (SFSPA) group.

Chris Banks
Scientist

Scientist in the Marine Physics and Ocean Climate group at the National Oceanography Centre(NOC).

Pierre Bahurel
Director General, Mercator Ocean

Director General and founder of Mercator Ocean, the French center for ocean monitoring and forecasting. He has a Master of Science degree in Oceanography, Meteorology and the Environment, and a Master of Business Administration.

Sophie Besnard
Key Account Manager for Sustainable Management of Fisheries

Key Account Manager for Sustainable Management of Fisheries at Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS). She was previously the Project Manager for Vendée Globe 2016 at CLS.

Lauren Biermann
Senior Remote Sensing Scientist

Senior Remote Sensing Scientist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). At Cefas she leads the marine portfolio for the UK's Earth Observation Centre of Excellence (EOCoE), and is  principal investigator on the Marine Earth Observations Applications Platform (MEO-AP).

Valborg Byfield
Satellite Oceanographer

Satellite Oceanographer at NOC. Coordinator of the UNESCO Bilko and ESA LearnEO! projects, providing on-line lessons in marine & coastal remote sensing.

Anny Cazenave
Director of Earth Sciences

Director of Earth Sciences at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI). She is one of the pioneers of satellite altimetry, and is a leading expert in climate change and sea level rise. She holds several senior positions in research institutions and on international advisory groups.

Paolo Cipollini
Engineer and Satellite Oceanographer

Engineer and Satellite Oceanographer at the NOC. His research interests are in the field of remote sensing and satellite oceanography, by means of both active and passive instruments, and in the exploitation of the synergy and integration of data coming from different space-borne instruments with traditional in situ measurements.

Pierre Yves Cousteau
Marine Conservationist & Founder of Cousteau Divers

Yves is the youngest son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He studied biochemistry and space studies before working for NASA and the European Space Agency as scientific coordinator for biology experiments in space. Passionate for the ocean since childhood, he became a scuba diving instructor and joined the Cousteau Society in 2009 to develop the Cousteau Divers programme.

Mauro Facchini
Head of the Copernicus Unit

Head of the Copernicus Unit within the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Before joining the European Commission he worked in Italy, the UK and Switzerland in the academic and research environment.

Eleanor Frajka-Williams
Associate Professor in Physical Oceanography

Associate Professor in Physical Oceanography within Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton. Her research interests include ocean overturning circulation, dynamics of ocean circulation, observationally-based physical oceanography, high-latitude processes (convection, fresh boundary currents) and interactions between physical oceanography and other fields.

Philippe Gaspar
Scientific Coordinator

Gaspar is the Scientific Coordinator of the CLS Satellite Oceanography Division.  He has been active in the development of new algorithms for light-based underwater geolocation of marine animals. He also triggered, and participated to, the research work that recently led to the operational implementation of a new Argos location algorithm based on multiple-model Kalman filtering.

Michelle Gierach
Research Scientist

Research Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she leads a physical oceanography center investigating the condition of a large portion of the world’s coral reefs. Gierach has received both national and international recognition for her work, including NASA’s Early Career Achievement Medal. She is from Lake Mary, Florida.


Christine Gommenginger
Senior Research Fellow

Senior Research Fellow at the NOC. She is a member of ESA Earth Science Advisory Committee (ESAC), UK Space Agency Eath Observation Advisory Committee (EOAC), and ESA GEROS-ISS Science Advisory Group (GEROS-ISS SAG).

George Graham
Marine Instrumentation Scientist

Marine Instrumentation Scientist and Data Team Manager at SAHFOS and is responsible for leading the development of new instrumentation and observing systems on the CPR Survey. He is also a member of the SAHFOS Management Team. He is a seagoing Physical Oceanographer specialising in the measurement, characterisation and monitoring of suspended particulate matter in the coastal and open ocean using novel imaging, optics and acoustics systems.

Thomas Jackson
Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative Research Scientist

Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative Research Scientist at PML. He has a PhD in Earth Sciences from Oxford University.

Ewa Kwiatkowska
Remote Sensing Scientist

Remote Sensing scientist at EUMETSAT. She is the Ocean Colour Team leader.

Pierre-Yves Le Traon
Oceanographer and Scientific Director

Oceanographer and Scientific Director of Mercator Ocean and Research Director at Ifremer.  He is in charge of the scientific direction of Mercator Ocean and of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.

Ben Loveday
Marine Earth Observation Scientist

Marine Earth Observation Scientist at PML. His background is in remote sensing, physical oceanography & numerical modelling.

Kevin Marston
Satellite Systems Operations Manager

Satellite Systems Operations Manager at EUMETSAT. He is also joint Operations Preparation Integrated Team (OPIT) Manager.

Victor Martinez-Vicente
Bio-optical Oceanographer

Bio-optical Oceanographer  at PML, whose research focuses on understanding the interaction of living and non-living particles with light in the ocean, with the aim of improving the interpretation of ocean colour from space.

Anne O’Carroll
Ocean Remote Sensing Scientist

Ocean Remote Sensing Scientist and Sentinel-3 Sea Surface Temperature Scientist at EUMETSAT, and Science Team Chair for the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST).

Eleni Papathanasopoulou
Economist

Economist working within the socio-economics group of PML. Her main area of research is combining macroeconomic models with environmental and resource vectors to assess the impacts humans are having on the environment and how resources are being used to sustain changing lifestyles and economic development.


Bill Patzert
Oceanography Research Scientist

Oceanography Research Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He conducts research on the ocean's role in climate variability. Responsibilities include working for various NASA/JPL projects and being a member of NASA science teams.


Marie-Fanny Racault
Earth Observation Scientist

Earth Observation Scientist at PML. She  has research expertise in applications of Earth observations, particularly in studying the influence of global and regional climate phenomena (El Niño, IOD etc.), on the year-to-year variability of primary producers, and assessing future changes under global warming. She has developed phenology algorithms to quantify plankton seasonal cycle in the global oceans and also in regional ecosystems such as the Red Sea coral reefs.

Alain Ratier
Director General of EUMETSAT

Director General of EUMETSAT. His professional career has developed at the cross-roads of meteorology, oceanography and Earth observation from space.


Vinca Rosmorduc
Aviso Altimetry Data Distribution and Information Centre Manager

Rosmorduc has been involved in altimetry outreach since 1997 for CLS, mainly for the Aviso data center. She developed the altimetry toolbox and its tutorial for ESA and CNES, and participated in user trainings for them.

Shubha Sathyendranath
Senior Scientist & Head of Remote Sensing and Marine Optics

Senior Scientist and Head of Remote Sensing and Marine Optics at PML. She is also Assistant Director for the Partnership for the Observation of the Global Oceans.

Remko Scharroo
Remote Sensing Scientist

Remote Sensing Scientist at EUMETSAT. His specialties are in analysis of large geographical data sets, calibration of satellite instrumentation, collaborative research, programming in C and Fortran.

Gavin Tilstone
Senior Scientific Officer

Senior Scientific Officer at PML. He works in bio-optical oceanography and remote sensing and has expertise in ocean colour, satellite validation and algorithm development, optics, phytoplankton photosynthesis and primary production.

Christine Träger-Chatterjee
Scientist

Scientist at EUMETSAT. Her responsibilities at EUMETSAT are the user training on climate, ocean, and marine forecasting related products.

Christoforos Tsamalis
Senior Researcher

Senior Researcher at the Met Office. His research is  focused on satellite observations of sea surface temperature and aerosols in support of forecasting applications, climate monitoring and environmental services.

Josh Willis
Oceanographer and Climate Scientist

Willis is an Oceanographer and Climate Scientist who studies sea-level rise and ocean warming at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is also a member of the science team for Jason 2, an ocean Earth-science mission. His area of expertise is current sea level rise, as well as measuring ocean temperatures.