Bio
Prof. Alan Deidun, a marine biologist by training, is Malta’s first-ever Ocean Ambassador. He directs the Malta Training Centre of the International Ocean Institute (IOI) and is a Full Professor within the Faculty of Science of the University of Malta, where he coordinates the Master of Science in Applied Oceanography course and acts as the Rector’s Delegate on the SEA-EU 2.0 (University of the Sea) alliance, which features a Consortium of nine European Universities. He also acts as Deputy Chairman of Malta’s first-ever Climate Action Committee. He has participated, over the past 15 years, in numerous EU-funded projects within different funding calls, coordinating some of the same projects, with the BYTHOS project winning the EU’s prestigious Regiostars Award last December.

Talk
Invasive Alien Species – the what, the why and the where

Bio
Prof. Alan Deidun, a marine biologist by training, is Malta’s first-ever Ocean Ambassador. He directs the Malta Training Centre of the International Ocean Institute (IOI) and is a Full Professor within the Faculty of Science of the University of Malta, where he coordinates the Master of Science in Applied Oceanography course and acts as the Rector’s Delegate on the SEA-EU 2.0 (University of the Sea) alliance, which features a Consortium of nine European Universities. He also acts as Deputy Chairman of Malta’s first-ever Climate Action Committee. He has participated, over the past 15 years, in numerous EU-funded projects within different funding calls, coordinating some of the same projects, with the BYTHOS project winning the EU’s prestigious Regiostars Award last December.

Talk
Harnessing citizen science for the detection and monitoring of marine alien species: A mediterranean perspective

Bio
Francesco Tiralongo is an ichthyologist mainly interested in the study of coastal fish communities, with a focus on cryptobenthic and benthic fish. He is also engaged in the study and monitoring of rare and non-indigenous fish in Italian waters, and is the scientific manager of the AlienFish project, which also includes the use of citizen science. His research further extends into fisheries science and biological invasions, and he is engaged in the study of biological and ecological aspects of elasmobranchs.

Talk
The impacts of IAS on coastal habitats and fisheries in the south-eastern Aegean Sea

Bio
Stefanos Kalogirou graduated from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with a Master’s of Science in marine biology (2005) and Ph.D. in fish and fisheries ecology with an emphasis on non-indigenous species (2011). He has attended several postgraduate courses in stock assessment, organisation of EU institutions, geographical information systems, bottom imaging processing for side scan sonar and multibeam sonar, experimental design and data analysis for biologists using R language, ecology and nursery functions of coastal habitats for fish. Stefanos Kalogirou has more than 15 years of experience in the management of research projects both as Scientific coordinator and project leader and has represented Sweden in consultations for the internal and external Common Fisheries Policy (2006-2021). Since January 2022, he has been an Assistant Professor at the Department of Animal Science at the Agricultural University of Athens in fisheries biology, assessment and management. He has more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, and is a member of various working Groups of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) of the EU.