Biography

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Javier Arístegui is a Full Professor of Ecology at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), where he has been a dedicated teacher, Master and PhD theses advisor, and mentor of talented and enthusiastic young scientists during the past 35 years. He was the former director of the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change - IOCAG (2011-2012), and the “Marine Technological Service - SITMA” (2015-2018) at the ULPGC. Presently, he is the director of the Canaries Observatory of Harmful Algae (OC-HABs). Under his supervision, 17 PhD students and numerous Master students successfully completed their degrees in Biological Oceanography at the Faculty of Marine Sciences. For more than 35 years, he has worked closely with physical oceanographers on the dynamics of pelagic ecosystems, including studies on plankton ecology and ecophysiology, microbial oceanography, and biogeochemistry.

 

More recently he has been working on the effects of climate-change stressors on planktonic communities, and on nature-based solutions to enhance carbon dioxide removal. He has published more than 160 referred publications, coordinated 35 national and international projects, co-authored more than 170 conference presentations, with several plenary or invited conferences, and participated in about 35 oceanographic cruises across all major ocean basins, from polar to tropical seas. He has served the scientific community as organizer and convener of a number of international conferences and symposyum, ad-hoc reviewer for 14 national and international Science Foundations, and reviewer for more than 40 international journals.

 

Presently is Co-Editor in Chief of “Deep Sea Research II” and Associate Editor of “Frontiers in Marine Science”. He has been also Guest Editor of “Progress in Oceanography” (2004 and 2009), “Scientia Marina” (2001) and Biogeosciences (2020). He formed part of the European Network of Excellence Eur-Oceans (2005-2007) and was Member (2007-2009) and Vice-Chair (2010-2013) of the international programme on Global Change “IMBER-Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research”) from the “IGBP-International Geosphere and Biosphere Program”. He was contributing author for the first Implementation Plan of the JGOFS-Time Series Stations and the implementation Plan of the Joint SOLAS_IMBER Ocean Carbon Research Carbon Cycle. He has been Contributing Author and Reviewer for the chapter on “The Oceans” of the “IPCC- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” 5th Assessment Report (2014), and Lead Author for the “IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2017-2019)”. In 2015, he was awarded with the “Helmholtz International Fellow Award”, by the German Association of Research Centres of Excellence (Helmholtz Association). Recently (2021) he has been nominated as director of the UNESCO chair on Environmental and Marine Resources Management (ULPGC).