Search Results

Gerald Singh Co-investigator (IWP1) Dr. Gerald Singh is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has a PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Sciences from the University of British Columbia. Singh is also the Deputy Research Director with the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center. His research is primarily situated in the science-policy interface, and focused on understanding the dynamics between social, economic, and environmental dimensions in sustainable development. This focus takes form in the following ways: 1) assessing cumulative anthropogenic impacts on the environment and understanding the consequences to people; 2) determine priority policy actions and plans to achieve specific sustainable development objectives (particularly the Sustainable Development Goals); 3) understand risk and uncertainty in sustainability policy and management. Doing work in any one of these areas means navigating data gaps, and Singh uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, as well as structured expert elicitation, in his research.

Memorial University Jacob Sargent Research Assistant (WP8) More to come.

Wendy Smith Co-investigator (WP7) Wendy Smith earned her Ph.D. at the Harvard Business School and is currently Professor of Management at the Lerner School of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware. She brings to the team expertise in studying social enterprises, particularly through a lens of paradox theory. In her previous research, she has studied social enterprises around the world. Most notable her recent research explored the in-depth decision making across the first 10 years of Digital Divide Data, an award-winning work integration social enterprise started in Southeast Asia in 1999. This project explored how the senior leaders applied a paradoxical approach to effectively address the ongoing competing demands between their social mission to stop the cycle of poverty through enabling increased work opportunities and their business goals to be an operationally sustainable business. This research led to a publication in Administrative Science Quarterly, one of the top journals in the field of organizational studies, as well as publications in practitioner journals such as the Harvard Business Review and other blog posts. Working with PI Slawinski on SSHRC-funded (partnership development grant) research with Shorefast on Fogo Island NL, Smith has gained expertise in social enterprise research and development in Newfoundland and Labrador. This more recent work includes collaboration on the development of the PLACE model for social enterprise and community development, and on related workshops and publications in other blog posts. Smith has also collaborated with PI Slawinski on unpacking the competitive and cooperative dynamics in industry-wide alliances, by studying the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), an initiative to advance environmental standards among companies in the Alberta Oil Sands. Finally, Smith offers expertise in research, analysis and publication. She has spent the last three years as an associate editor at the Academy of Management Journal, one of the top journals in organization studies, accruing insight on the development of academic publications.

Melanie Wiber Co-investigator (WP5) Melanie Wiber is Professor Emerita of Anthropology in the University of New Brunswick and Co-Editor of the Journal of Legal Pluralism. She has extensive experience in collaborative interdisciplinary research, including as a co-investigator on the SSHRC-funded Coastal CURA (Community and University Research Alliance), as lead for a Working Group on the Socio-Economics of Integrated Management for the Oceans Management Research Network that was co-funded by SSHRC and DFO, and as a co-investigator with the NSERC-funded Canadian Fisheries Research Network. In the FOCI Consortium, Dr. Wiber is Co-Investigator on WP5: “Building collaborative interdisciplinary research infrastructure in Atlantic Canada’s lobster fisheries.”

FUTURE OCEAN NEWS Learn more about the research, initiatives, and achievements of FOCI’s network of researchers, HQP, collaborators, and partners in our newsletter "Future Ocean News". Future Ocean News March 2025 Future Ocean News December 2024 Future Ocean News September 2024 World Ocean Day June 2024 Future Ocean News May 2024 Future Ocean News April 2024 Future Ocean News March 2024 Future Ocean News January 2024 Future Ocean News December 2023 Future Ocean News September 2023 Future Ocean News July 2023 Future Ocean News March 2023 Future Ocean News December 2022 Future Ocean News October 2022 Future Ocean News March 2022 Future Ocean News February 2022 Future Ocean News December 2021 Future Ocean News November 2021 Future Ocean News September 2021 Future Ocean News August 2021 Future Ocean News July 2021 World Ocean Day June 2021

Memorial University Mohannad AlRefai Co-op Student (WP3) Mohannad AlRefai is a senior Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering student at Memorial University St. John's campus. Born in Egypt, Mohannad would often visit the Suez canal as well as other coastal parts of Egypt, where his passion for naval architecture grew. Mohannad has previous co-op work experience in MUN where he was a research assistant for Dr. Mikko from Aalto University, who was conducting research on ice-ship interaction. Additionally, Mohannad had a co-op work term at local start-up Enaimco. With an expected graduation in Winter 2025, Mohannad aspires to contribute significantly to the field of naval architecture, whether in the field of academia or otherwise.

Marine Institute, Memorial University Mohammad Zarrin Mehr Master's Student (WP3) Mohammad is an experienced safety and risk engineer who has been involved in some mega-sized onshore, offshore, FLNG, and FPSO projects worldwide. He is a master’s student in the Maritime Studies Department of the Memorial University of Newfoundland. His research interests encompass marine and offshore safety studies, and his current research focuses on Search and Rescue (SAR) in maritime emergency situations. This research allows for a detailed investigation of the factors with the highest impact on SAR effectiveness. This was accomplished by developing a new macro-scale generalized SAR model to simulate the main activities within the SAR system in Eastern Canada and the Arctic. This model uses discrete event simulation to represent the SAR operations and a probabilistic Monte Carlo approach to incorporate uncertainties in performance data for the different components of the system. Through his research, it is possible that strategic decision-making for SAR resource allocation and configuration can be improved. The objective nature of this model enables SAR planning and asset positioning to be possible, depending on the likelihood and type of incidents, as well as the resources in different regions which may have different needs.

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Umme Kulsum Postdoctoral Fellow (IWP1) Dr Umme Kulsum is a Postdoctoral Fellow in FOCI’s IWP #1 , conducting research that will undertake methodological comparison and advance application of ‘foresighting’ and ‘full-spectrum sustainability scenario comparison’ for future ocean and coastal infrastructures. She will play a leadership role in contributing to the synthesis framework, practical toolkit for coastal community and other practitioners. She is involved in engaging the Consortium’s ‘trainee caucus’, and the international Community of Practice organized by the work package. Kulsum in her most recent activities in Bangladesh, as National Climate Change and Risk Management Expert in Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has supported Department of Fisheries (DoF) on community-based climate resilient fisheries and aquaculture. She has facilitated climate risk and vulnerability assessment, developed manual, conducted training on integrated climate information services, climate resilience and ecosystem approaches to fisheries and aquaculture. She is an environmental science graduate from Khulna University, Bangladesh. Her interdisciplinary doctoral research has focused on participatory scenario-based approaches in bridging coastal community adaptation with adaptive delta management under uncertain climate and socioeconomic change. This research was in collaborative ‘Adaptive Delta Management’ project at Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology (Tudelft), in Netherlands, Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Bangladesh University of Technology (BUET) in Bangladesh and other international groups. She has a long experience in coastal community development, disaster risk management, food and livelihood security. Currently, Kulsum is working under the supervision of Asoc Prof Paul Foley and Dr Rob Stephenson (in FOCI) to integrate and apply the concepts of foresighting and full-spectrum sustainability, to further the aims and objectives of the wider FOCI project working groups.

Whitney Lackenbauer Co-investigator (WP3) Dr. P. Whitney Lackenbauer is the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Study of the Canadian North and a Professor in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. He is also Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, which encompasses patrols throughout Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. His research focuses on Arctic policy, sovereignty, security, and governance issues; modern Canadian and circumpolar history; military history and contemporary defence policy; and Indigenous-state relations in Canada. This includes a particular focus on discerning ways to strengthen search and rescue (SAR) and emergency response capabilities in the Canadian North by clarifying and harmonizing the roles, responsibilities, and capabilities of the community-based organizations (e.g. Coast Guard Auxiliary, volunteer SAR teams, Canadian Rangers) and devising ways of better incorporating these groups into plans and policies. This research is a component of the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN) that he leads, which is funded by the Department of National Defence Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program from 2019-22. Dr. Lackenbauer will contribute to Work Package 3 “Search and Rescue in Remote Regions.

Dalhousie University Brenna Sobanski Research Assistant (WP6) To learn more about Sobanski Brenna, (She/Her) — Faculty of Social Sciences (mcmaster.ca)

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Ajith Raj Doctoral Candidate (IWP1) Ajith Raj is a graduate student in the Transdisciplinary Sustainability program at the Grenfell campus of the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Ajith is part of the FOCI (Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures) Integrated Work Package-1 which is about the foresighting future ocean infrastructure. Before joining FOCI, Ajith lived in the western Indian islands called Lakshadweep and worked with the pole and line fisher community to develop a co-management system for the fisheries on the islands. His research focuses on the political economy of the blue economy, foresighting the future of sustainable ocean infrastructure for island communities and fisheries resource management. Ajith completed a Master’s in Development with a sustainability specialization and worked for a Fisheries conservation NGO in India.

Joe Daraio Co-investigator (WP2) Dr. Joe Daraio is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has research experience in ecology, environmental hydraulics, and hydrology, and his primary research interests are in the integration of natural and built environment towards climate change adaptation and resilient design of civil infrastructure. His recent work has focused potential climate change impacts on storm water system design parameters, including peak flows, at local scales, and on development of relatively simple methods for design engineers to incorporate climate change impacts on flow frequencies using flow duration curves. He is principal investigator on a project funded by Natural Resources Canada working with the provincial government on Building Climate Resilience (BCR) to train professional engineers and planners to incorporate climate change into design and planning of infrastructure. This work provides a means to directly apply his research on climate change impacts into practice, and will identify important knowledge gaps for design of storm water infrastructure under climate change. The current proposal will expand on this ongoing work though the direct inclusion of coastal aspects of infrastructure, and by reaching beyond professionals directly to stakeholders and members of the public who have an important part to play in developing resilient and sustainable coastal communities. Dr. Daraio will co-lead with Finnis on WP2.2 (Utility of Climate Guidance)