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Timothy Steeves Co-investigator (IWP4) Timothy Steeves, F.R.S.C., is a University Research Professor at the School of Music, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. His expertise is in piano performance and, with his ensemble Duo Concertante, he has performed over 600 recitals throughout North America, Europe and China, recorded 12 acclaimed commercial CDs one of which won a JUNO and three of which won ECMAs, and commissioned over 65 new Canadian works. He is also the founder and Co-Artistic Director of the chamber music festival The Tuckamore Festival which recently celebrated its 19th season. With Duo Concertante, he has been the impetus for many interdisciplinary collaborations including projects with Vincent Ho (Maples and the Stream), Chan Ka Nin (Late in a Slow Time), Andrew Staniland (The Ocean is Full of its own Collapse) and has a proven track record of bringing to life new works of art which combine music and dramas supported by strong artistic vision, careful planning and fundraising, and skillful execution. Committed to outreach, he has also performed for over 3000 school age children across NL in a program focusing on mental illness, marginalization and disability, as well as in Germany through the Rhapsody in School program.

Memorial University Brennan Lowery Postdoctoral Fellow (WP7) To learn more about Brennan Lowery - Rural Resilience

Aldo Chircop Collaborator (WP1) Dr. Aldo Chircop is a full professor of law and Canada Research Chair in Maritime Law and Policy (Tier I), based at the Marine and Environmental Law Institute, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. He has researched and published extensively on Canadian and international maritime law, in particular with respect to polar shipping. He is the lead author of Canadian Maritime Law 2nd ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2016), the leading reference work on this topic in the country. Dr. Chircop will be providing advisory support to FOCI researchers with respect to issues concerning maritime law and regulation. Dr. Chircop is co-investigator in Work Package 1: “Improving safety and environmental footprints of marine vehicles by design and operation”.

Kimberly Cullen Lead (WP8), Co-investigator (WP1) Dr. Kim Cullen (MUN) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation and the Co-Director for the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research – a leading community-university alliance for multidisciplinary research, knowledge exchange and OHS education in Atlantic Canada. Kim came to MUN in 2018 after 16 years conducting research at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. Her research focuses on the interconnections between work and health, how work affects our physical and mental health – for good or for bad – and also how poor health affects our ability to work. Her strengths include expertise in advancing methods to measure and evaluate change as indicators of recovery, the design of web-based survey instruments, the synthesis of research evidence through systematic literature reviews, and the effective use of innovative knowledge mobilization strategies to increase the relevance, reach, uptake and impact of research for OHS policy and practice decision-making.

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Julia Fracassi Master's Student (IWP1) Julia Fracassi is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy at Memorial University. Hailing from Toronto, she completed her undergraduate degree in Communications, as well as Environment and Urban Sustainability at Ryerson University. While volunteering for marine conservation NGOs abroad, she was profoundly moved by how combining community input and science-based evidence could influence local laws and the creation of marine protected areas. Her current work at Memorial University combines community-engaged research and knowledge mobilization to take a look at how climate change affects coastal communities who rely on sea ice as infrastructure. Despite living in a landlocked city her whole life, her experiences as a scuba diver have fueled her passion for marine conservation and policy. When she’s not underwater looking at coral, Julia loves camping, snowboarding, and exploring all the amazing, diverse natural environments Canada has to offer.

Memorial University Judyannet Muchiri Research Assistant (WP9) Judyannet’s political and intellectual interests include gender justice, civic participation, digital rights, feminist foreign policy, and knowledge creation processes. She has worked on these areas as a policy analyst, researcher, writer, and activist. Her most recent work has been in Canada’s international cooperation sector and the non-profit sector in Eastern Africa . Currently, Judyannet is leading policy work at the Inter-Council Network (ICN), co-leading the Africa Community Engagement Hub (ACE) and completing a doctorate at Memorial University, NL.

Memorial University Paige Bodnar Co-op Student (WP1) My name is Paige Bodnar, I am a fifth year Ocean Naval Architectural Engineering (ONAE) student at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I grew up sailing on the east coast and spent most of my life surrounded by the water. I even had the opportunity to live on a tall-ship on the Atlantic Ocean for 10 months. With the ONAE co-op program I have worked with DND, Irving Shipbuilding, Fleetway Engineering, Aalto University and currently with Memorial University where I’m doing a literature review on the effects of underwater radiated noise on marine fauna in the Arctic region. At school, I’m on the student engineering society, the MUN sailing team, I am the ONAE class representative and the SNAME MUN Chapter representative. Outside of school and work I spend my time outdoors, rock climbing, skiing, hiking, biking and more. I have also had the opportunity to earn many awards and scholarships including the SNAME Undergraduate Scholarship, NSERC Research Grant, American Bureau of Shipping Award, Robert Allan Undergraduate Scholarship, Professor Bill Milne Scholarship, John Madvig Bursary and a Governors General Award. I intend on continuing with academia after finishing my undergraduate degree and am very excited about the direction of ocean naval research.

Karen Foster Co-Lead (WP6) Since 2014 I have held the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada at Dalhousie University. In 2016 I founded the Rural Futures Research Centre (RFRC), which I continue to direct and am currently proposing to develop into a larger institute with facilities and collaborators in both Halifax and Truro. My CRC research draws on economic sociology, political economy, political ecology, rural sociology, life course studies and the sociology of work to offer a critical perspective on work, income, livelihood, community, sustainability and intergenerational relations in Atlantic Canada. Through numerous individual research projects over my tenure as Chair, I have developed expertise on how Atlantic Canadians make a living and how they feel about it; how they perceive relationships between environment and economy; what macro- and micro-level factors affect demographics and economic activity in rural communities; and the discourses that shape the practice and outcomes of rural community and economic development. I have extensive experience designing, implementing and analysing the results of telephone, online and paper surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. The RFRC's facilities include the hardware (CATI - Computer-assisted telephone interviewing -stations, iPad library) and software (SPSS, Atlas.ti, Voxco) to conduct almost any kind of social research, and the centre typically employs 15 undergraduate and 5 graduate students while there are surveys 'in field.'

Memorial University Mohammad Awad Co-op Student (WP3) Mohammad Awad is a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, set to graduate in 2026. He has been actively involved in mapping Automatic Identification System (AIS) data to support search and rescue operations. By analyzing ship movement patterns and integrating data-driven approaches, he aims to enhance maritime safety and improve emergency response times. His efforts contribute to the development of predictive models that assist in locating distressed vessels, further demonstrating his commitment to using engineering and data science for real-world problem-solving. In addition to his work in search and rescue, Mohammad is passionate about aviation and aerospace technology. As the founder of Memorial University’s first commercial aerospace design group, he leads a team focused on creating VTOL unmanned aircraft aimed at tackling environmental challenges such as forest fires and overfishing. His hands-on experience in drone development, coupled with a deep understanding of mechanical systems, has positioned him at the forefront of innovative aerospace solutions. His expertise spans aerodynamics, structural design, and thermal analysis, with a strong foundation in computational modelling and SolidWorks simulations.

Memorial University Samia Nusrat Co-op Student (WP3) More to come.

Wei Qiu Co-investigator (WP1) Dr. Wei Qiu is Professor and Head of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering, Memorial University. His research is in the area of marine hydrodynamics and its applications to ships and offshore structures. He specializes in solving fluid-structure interaction problems using experimental and numerical methods including CFD and potential-flow-based methods. Dr. Qiu has led numerous projects in partnership with the marine and offshore industry, government agencies and private sectors, including propeller vortex flow and noise, ship hull form optimization, effect of manufacturing defects on propeller cavitation performance, and energy saving for Newfoundland fishing vessels. Dr. Qiu has served as Chair of the ITTC Ocean Engineering Committee for three terms and served on the Specialist Committee on Power Performance Prediction. He has published over 130 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings and holds patents. Dr. Qiu is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) and a fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). He has also served as the Regional Vice President (Atlantic North) of SNAME.

Dan Walker Co-investigator (WP1) Dr. Dan Walker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dr. Walker’s research has focused on the hydrodynamic performance of marine vehicles. Before joining Memorial University, he was president of Oceanic Consulting Corporation, a St. John’s based marine performance evaluation research firm. He sold the firm to J.D. Irving Limited in 2011. At the time, the firm had 45 employees and over $6.5 million in international research revenue. Oceanic carried out contract research in hydrodynamics and arctic engineering with clients and projects spanning a broad range of the marine industry. Research included the propulsion performance of ships, yachts, sailing vessels and offshore structures. On joining Memorial, Dr. Walker took over leadership of the Marine Environmental Research Laboratory for Intelligent Vehicles (MERLIN). Under his leadership, MERLIN carried out a $5.0 million research project called Responsive Localization and Mapping (REALM) that developed software-based control strategies to improve autonomous control of underwater vehicles.