Protecting Our Blue Planet André Abreu, Doug Mair, Laura Robinson and Bryce Stewart (Chair)

André Abreu is Head of International Policy at the Tara Ocean Foundation. He joined the Foundation in 2011 after working with the Fondation Danielle-Mitterrand – France Libertés and the UN on the right for all to access drinking water. For 20 years, the Tara Ocean Foundation has been active in informing the general public about advanced scientific research carried out aboard its schooner and in partner laboratories. Its main objective is to reach policy makers so that the latest scientific data will inform and motivate appropriate concrete actions. At the heart of Tara's advocacy efforts is the preservation of life, with a focus on addressing the impacts of climate change and pollution on marine biodiversity.

Doug Mair is Professor of Glaciology and Head of School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Liverpool.  His research interests include the influences of hydrology on glacier dynamics and controls on ice sheet mass balance and volume change. Doug has investigated these using field-based measurements and the development of glacial process models. He has over 20 years of research experience in the Swiss Alps, the Canadian High Arctic and on the Greenland Ice Sheet. This research has been supported by grants from Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), The Leverhulme Trust, The Carnegie Trust and the Scottish Alliance for Geosciences, Environment and Society (SAGES). He currently leads a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant with an interdisciplinary team of glaciologists, palaeoecologists and marine palaeobiologists from the Universities of Liverpool, Aberdeen and Glasgow, to determine long-term (centennial to millennial) changes in tidewater glacier calving rates.

Professor Laura Robinson is Chair in Oceans, Climate and Society in the University of York's Department of Environment and Geography. Her research interests are to document and understand the processes that govern climate on time scales ranging from the modern day back through hundreds of thousands of years. To do this research she uses geochemical techniques, with an emphasis on radioactive elements including uranium series isotopes and radiocarbon. Through a combination of field work and lab work she has been tackling questions relating to the timing of Pleistocene climate change events, Palaeoclimate reconstructions, deep-sea coral paleo-biogeography and the impact of weathering on the ocean and climate, among others.

Dr Bryce Stewart is a Senior Research Fellow with the Marine Biological Association. His upbringing in Australia and Papua New Guinea inspired a deep fascination and love of the ocean. Since then, Bryce has developed a career as a marine ecologist and fisheries biologist whose work has ranged from temperate estuaries to tropical coral reefs and the deep-sea. The central driver of his research has been to gain an increased understanding of marine species and ecosystems to help balance the provision of ecosystem services (particularly fisheries) with conservation. His specialities include the provision of evidence to improve fisheries management and policy and examining the utility of Marine Protected Areas for enhancing both conservation and fisheries. He has worked with a broad range of stakeholders including commercial and recreational fishermen, conservationists, and the seafood industry and is passionate about communicating the findings of his research to the broadest possible audiences.