New Early Career Researchers Join SOOS Leadership Teams

The Weddell Sea and Dronning Maud Land (WSDML) Regional Working Group (RWG) welcomes Rebecca Konijnenberg, as APECS Representative to their leadership team. 

Becky is a marine ecologist working towards a PhD at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, as part of the Quantitative Marine Science Programme. Before starting her PhD in 2023, she worked as a data scientist for the Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area (WSMPA) Phase 1 Project at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Germany. She has previously completed a master’s program in the Ecosystem-Based Management of Marine Systems at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, as well as a master’s program in International Relations and Politics at the University of Cambridge, England. During her PhD, Becky is studying the spatial design of demersal fish surveys on the Kerguelen Plateau. She is particularly interested how they can be improved to better capture the effects of climate change. She is passionate about all things marine conservation and is active in CCAMLR and policy circles. Becky has been a board member of APECS Germany since 2021. 

The West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc (WAPSA) Regional Working Group (RWG) is happy to introduce Martina Mascioni, as the new APECS Representative on their leadership team. 

Martina is a Biologist with a PhD in Natural Sciences, currently a Postdoctoral researcher at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina). During her PhD she studied the composition, spatio-temporal dynamics, and productivity of phytoplankton in coastal areas of the western Antarctic Peninsula. She is also one of the leaders of the International Citizen Science Project FjordPhyto (www.fjordphyto.org), which collaborates with the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) in the monitoring of phytoplankton in nearshore waters of the Antarctic Peninsula. Her work consists mainly of microscopic analysis of samples, but during the austral summer she joins IAATO tour vessels going to the Peninsula for fieldwork. Martina has been an active member of APECS Argentina since August 2021. Even though she did her thesis and her main research takes place in the Antarctic Peninsula, Martina has also collaborated in several studies in different parts of the Southern Ocean and the Argentine Sea. 

The leadership team of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sector (ABS) Regional Working Group (RWG) is joined by their new APECS Representative, Katie Lowery. 

Katie is a PhD student at the British Antarctic Survey and The University of Leeds studying ice-ocean interactions. Before her PhD, Katie studied for a Mathematics degree at Edinburgh University. Her PhD focuses on looking at changes in ice shelf cavity geometry and its importance in modulating ice shelf basal melting. Her work uses a range of remote sensing techniques, observational data, and model data. Currently, this work is focused on Pine Island Glacier and the surrounding Amundsen Sea but will become Antarctic-wide over the remainder of her PhD.