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  • Mohammad Awad

    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.

  • Samia Nusrat

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

  • Nicolas Lynch

    Nicolas Lynch Co-investigator (WP9) Dr. Nicholas Lynch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. His expertise is in urban heritage development, cultural planning, sustainability policy and, the adaptive re-use of historic properties. Prior to joining Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dr. Lynch was a post-doctoral research associate at the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford University, UK.

  • Marie Louise Aastrup

    Memorial University Marie Louise Aastrup Postdoctoral Fellow (WP7) Marie Louise Aastrup is a postdoctoral fellow with the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) at the Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University. She joined FOCI OFI (WP7 - Building resilient coastal communities through social and community enterprise) in July 2022. Marie Louise holds a PhD in Geography from Memorial University (2021). Trained as a cultural and environmental geographer, Marie Louise has conducted research on perceptions of nature conservation, sustainable tourism, and northern housing and homelessness. Her postdoctoral research explores the role of place-based social enterprises in Newfoundland and Labrador.

  • Julia Christensen

    Julia Christensen Co-investigator (WP9) Dr. Julia Christensen is a Canada Research Chair in Northern Governance and Public Policy and an Assistant Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has over 15 years’ professional experience working in the Canadian and circumpolar Norths, where her works addresses housing insecurity, homelessness, social determinants of health, and community-led housing planning. Dr. Christensen currently leads several interdisciplinary, university-community and pan-Northern research collaborations in the areas of community-led housing policy and provision, supportive and transitional housing, northern homelessness and social programming and services. She regularly partners with municipal, territorial and Indigenous governments as well as NGOs. She is also active engaged in the development of research storytelling through creative and arts-based methods of data collection, analysis and knowledge mobilization. Finally, Dr. Christensen is the author or co-editor of three books, 17 peer-reviewed journal articles, 6 book chapters, several conference papers and policy reports, and a range of research storytelling products. She co-leads with Drs. Pottie-Sherman and Lynch the Adaptive Cities & Engagement (ACE) Space, a research lab promoting social justice and inclusivity in small cities.

  • Ario Seto

    Memorial University Ario Seto Postdoctoral Fellow (WP7) Ario Seto is a post-doctoral researcher at Memorial University’s Faculty of Business Administration and with the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI). An anthropologist, his work is also interdisciplinary with current research interests in value creation and community-based innovation, social enterprise and emerging public participation, cultural reproduction, marketization of well-being, and civic wealth creation. He has conducted field research in Indonesia, Germany, and Canada, as well as among several underground online groups and a multi-sited ethnographic research project on mediatised populism. Dr. Seto joined the FOCI Team in 2020 and is currently conducting research in Newfoundland and Labrador with FOCI WP7 - Building Resilient Coastal Communities through Social and Community Enterprise with a focus on community-based enterprises and their role in providing services to improve rural and coastal communities’ livability. His recent co-edited volume, Revitalizing PLACE through Social Enterprise, explores how social enterprise strengthens local economic activities to pursue more resilient and vibrant communities.

  • Bryhanna Greenough

    Memorial University Bryhanna Greenough Research Assistant (WP9) Bryhanna returned to university in 2019 with the intention of upgrading her skills with an MBA – and then discovered MUN’s Geography Department (and reaffirmed her love of the Humanities). She’s currently enrolled in the Urban and Regional Public Policy Certificate program. Bryhanna returned to university in 2019 with the intention of upgrading her skills with an MBA – and then discovered MUN’s Geography Department (and reaffirmed her love of the Humanities). She’s currently enrolled in the Urban and Regional Public Policy Certificate program.

  • Inclusion | FOCI

    INCLUSION Helping to ensure infrastructure designs support inclusion, social justice, and equity Ocean and coastal environmental degradation and change, unsafe and unsustainable resource development, and coastal community restructuring can exacerbate exclusion from ecosystem benefits, social injustice, and inequities. These problems often result in disproportionate impacts on disadvantaged groups such as people from lower socioeconomic standards, women, youth, immigrants, injured workers, people with disabilities, and resource-dependent coastal communities, with few economic development alternatives. By directly engaging multiple, critical understandings of inclusion and its relationship to social justice and equity, Inclusion Work Packages are developing new knowledge that can improve conditions for equitably engaging and including diverse groups (different genders, old and young, immigrants) to support their capacity and resilience in contexts of ocean, coastal, and social-ecological change. BUILDING RESILIENT COASTAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE (WP7) RETURN TO WORK AFTER WORK INJURY OR ILLNESS: CHALLENGES FOR MARINE AND COASTAL WORKERS IN ATLANTIC CANADA (WP8) INCLUSION, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY IN URBAN AND RURAL COASTAL COMMUNITIES (WP9)

  • Work Package 2 | FOCI

    ACTING ON WEATHER & CLIMATE: NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION DECISION MAKING (WP2) FOCI’s Work Package on ‘Networks and Infrastructure for Adaptation and Mitigation Decision Making’ focuses on infrastructures designed to facilitate planning around weather-driven hazards and climate change. Central to these activities is recognition that fostering coastal community sustainability in the context of a changing climate requires i) relevant, reliable guidance on anticipated climate impacts; ii) resources to identify and communicate weather hazards as they happen, and iii) availability of viable, cost-effective adaptation options. Designing infrastructures to meet these is best done through co-production of knowledge by practitioners (e.g. forecasters, climate scientists, engineers) and stakeholders, ensuring that resulting guidance is relevant and inclusive of diverse perspectives. MEET THE TEAM Joel Finnis Lead Barbara Neis Co-Investigator Carissa Brown Co-Investigator Mark Stoddart Co-Investigator Joseph Daraio Co-Investigator Martin V. Day Co-Investigator HIGHLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL (HQP) Joshua Brown Master's Student Current Emily Reid-Musson Postdoctoral Fellow 2021 Pierrette Janes-Bourque Master's Student Current Sydney Snow Research Assistant/CCNL Intern 2022-23 Erin Pearson Master's Student Alumni Ian Petty Research Assistant 2024 OUR PARTNERS

  • Barbara Doran

    Barbara Doran Collaborator (IWP4) Barbara Doran is a filmmaker, an activist and a businesswoman. She founded Morag Loves Company in 1983. Since then, she has written, directed, and produced more than 35 internationally acclaimed documentaries and dramas. She has made television biographies on Lucy Maude Montgomery, Gordon Pinsent, Joey Smallwood, and Cathy Jones. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Ms. Doran currently sits on the board of directors of Perchance Theatre. She is a Mentor with The Trudeau Foundation and a lifetime member of the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild of Canada. She produced Newfoundland’s first major international television series, Random Passage, in Trinity Bay in 1999, and since that time, the area of 3,000 souls has benefitted from more than 53 million dollars of film and television production. Ms. Doran’s feature film, The Grand Seduction also filmed in Trinity Bight, starring Brendan Gleeson, Gordon Pinsent and Taylor Kitsch, became an international box office hit that was featured on screens around the world. Ms. Doran’s primary role in the FOCI’s IWP4 will be as videographer in IWP4.

  • Sandra Hewitt-Parsons

    Memorial University Sandra Hewitt-Parsons Research Assistant (IWP4) More to come.

  • Giovanni Rognoni

    University of Trieste / Memorial University Giovanni Rognoni Visiting Doctoral Student (WP1) Giovanni Rognoni is a Ph.D. student in Engineering at the University of Trieste, Italy. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Trieste, with a thesis on the vibration assessment on a research catamaran developed in conjunction with Klaipeda University. He spent a period abroad at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. After graduation, he worked as a research assistant at the Ship Noise and Vibration Laboratory, participating in different projects. His research interests include vibration and noise prevention in marine structures, assessment of airborne and underwater radiated noise from ships, and new marine technologies. Currently, he is a visiting Ph.D. student at Memorial University, working at the Autonomous Ocean Systems Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Lorenzo Moro. His research project focuses on designing an acoustic metamaterial integrated onboard ships to reduce underwater radiated noise generated by internal machinery. The Italian university ministry selected and approved the research as a green thematic Ph.D. in the context of the National Operative Program 2014-2020, funded by the European Social Fund REACT-EU. The aim is to mitigate the ship's environmental footprint making a further step towards ocean preservation and conservation of underwater ecosystems.

We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.

To learn more about Memorial University's Strategic Framework for Indigenization please visit the Office of Indigenous Affairs.

Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures is administered in partnership by the St. John’s and Grenfell Campuses of Memorial University 

Research funding was provided by the Ocean Frontier Institute, through an award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

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