Luis Valdes
Luis Valdés Santurio (Research Professor) is the current Director of the Centro Oceanográfico de Santander (Instituto Español de Oceanografía-SCIC), before he was the Head of Ocean Sciences at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO during seven years (from 2009-2015), and formerly (2000-2008) he was the Director of the Centro Oceanográfico de Gijón (EO-CSIC). With more than 35 years of experience in marine research and field studies related with marine ecology and climate change, he established in 1990 the time series programme based on ocean sampling sites and marine observatories maintained by Spain in the North Atlantic. He has a long experience in science management and has advised various governmental, intergovernmental and international organizationsas well as research funding agencies. He also served as Spanish Delegate in the IOC-UNESCO and in ICES where he chaired different Working Groups and Committees including the Oceanographic Committee. At the IOC he has coordinated the Global Ocean Science Report «The current status of Ocean Science around the World».
Marie-Alexandrine Sicre
Marie-Alexandrine Sicre is a senior scientist of CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) based at LOCEAN, Sorbonne University, Paris, France. She is vice-chairperson of the Executive Council of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and currently serves as past president of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). She is co-chair of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition program and member of the Indian Ocean Region Panel of Clivar/IOC-GOOS. She earned her PhD in Marine Sciences in 1987 at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA. Her research expertise is in oceanography and paleoceanography. Over the past 20 years, she worked on the role of the ocean on climate variability and published more than 100 papers in peer-review international journals. Her research has led to the emergence of high-resolution sea surface temperature and seasonal sea ice reconstructions over the Common Era.
Patricia Miloslavich
Patricia Miloslavich is Executive Director of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) of the International Science Council (ISC). She is a retired senior professor from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela from which she remains as ad honorem researcher. She was the recipient in 2015 of the Venezuelan National Science Award. She was the International Project Officer (2015-2019) of the Biology and Ecosystems Panel from the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) based initially at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and later at the University of Tasmania. She was Senior Scientist and Chair of the Caribbean Committee for the Census of Marine Life program (2000-2010). She contributed to draft the Science Strategy of the Ocean Science section of the IOC/UNESCO. She founded the South American SARCE rocky shore network and co-founded the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network of GEO-BON for Latin America. She was the President of the International Association for Biological Oceanography (IABO) and served on the Executive Committee of SCOR. She was a Coordinating Leading Author for the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) global assessment, a member of the pool of experts for the UN World Ocean Assessment (I and II), and a contributor to the Blue Papers commissioned by the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.