Marine Science Can Contribute to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life

Dr. Jacopo Aguzzi has more than 20 years of research experience in integrating the study of biological rhythms into deep-sea ecological monitoring practices. The overarching goal of his research is to relate the presence (and behaviour) of marine species to overall changes in sample richness and biodiversity at different temporal scales and under environmental control regimes. His research is presently focussing on the establishment of best monitoring practices and AI routines to extract ecological indicators with fixed and mobile robotic autonomous platforms. The use of cabled observatories, crawlers, AUVs and neutrino telescope is carried out to gather intensive spatio-temporal data picturing animal movements and interactions in oceanic three-dimensional water column and seabed scenarios. To date, he has participated in the publication of 166 research articles, 6 book chapters, and in more than 200 National and International conferences. He is the manager for the “ecological monitoring” and “citizen science” of the EMSO Testing-Site OBSEA (www.obsea.es). From 2016 to 2019, he was a Scientific Advisor for the Ocean Network Canada (ONC) for the Section “Life in the Environments of the Northeast Pacific Ocean and the Salish Sea”. He is presently participating in different international Committee Bodies, for example, the Working Group on Nephrops Surveys (WGNEPS) of the International Council for the Exploitation of the Sea (ICES).

Javier Cuadros is a senior researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. He graduated in Chemistry from the University of Malaga and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Granada. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1994-1996) and at Estación Experimental del Zaidín (CSIC) in Granada (1996-2000), then joined the Natural History Museum as a Researcher in 2000. He investigates clay geochemistry and processes in all environments. Particular aspects of his present research include clay on Mars, clay-life interaction, past environments as recorded by clays, mechanisms of clay processes, and the crystal chemistry of clays.

Dr. Lewis R. Dartnell is a British astrobiologist, presenter, and professor of science communication at the University of Westminster. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Biological Sciences and completed his PhD at University College London in 2007. His research is in the field of astrobiology and the search for microbial life on Mars. He has also held an STFC Science in Society Fellowship. He is also working as a scientific consultant for the media and has appeared in numerous TV documentaries and radio shows. He has won several awards for his science writing and outreach work, regularly freelances for newspapers and magazine articles, and has published three books. His works of popular science include The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch and Origins, which looks at how geology has impacted human history.

Dr. Corrado Costa has been a researcher biologist at CREA-IT (Engineering and agri-food transformation research center of CREA; Monterotondo, Italy) since 2010. He received the Italian Associate Professor habitation on Agricultural Engineering in 2017. From 2009 to 2013, he was vice-president of section VII “Information and Communication Technologies” of the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering (A.I.I.A.) and a member of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng), of the C.I.G.R. (International Commission of Agricultural Engineering) and of the CIGR Working Groups on Image Analysis and Logistics. He was scientifically responsible for an operative unit of a European and an Italian project; a Coordinator of one National project and a WP leader of 5 national projects; and a collaborator in 5 international and more than 30 Italian projects. He is an Editorial Board Member of 4 international journals, and since 2006, he has been a reviewer for more than 50 international journals with IF. He has also been the winner of 4 prizes for his publications. He has 6 patents and is the author or co-author of almost 300 publications, among which 139 have an Impact Factor (h-Index WoS = 31), mainly on image analysis, sensor-based applications, traceability, and multivariate artificial intelligence modeling in the agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors.

Dr. Loredana Canfora is a researcher at Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’economia Agraria. She has co-authored more than 40 IF-indexed papers, most of which were in journals with IF 3.0-5.5. She has published papers and proceedings in national and international peer-reviewed non-IF-indexed journals, and is the author of ~80 abstracts of contributions at national and international conferences. She has also authored 3 book chapters. She is the PMO of the Excalibur Project (Grant n. 817946). She is an Associated Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology, Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Microbiology, and Guest Associate Editor of Frontiers in Microbiotechnology. She was a member of the EIP-AGRI FG36 on soil salinity. Her research interests include soil fertility, soil analysis, fertilizers, sustainability, plant breeding, plant biotechnology, biodiversity, soil, environment, and environmental impact assessment.

Prof. Roberto Danovaro is a full Professor of Marine Biology and Ecology at the Polytechnic University of Marche. He is the Past-President of the Stazione Zoologica "Anton Dohrn" - National Institute of Marine Biology Ecology and Biotechnologies, Past-President of the Italian Society of Ecology, of the Italian Society of Limnology and Oceanography, and of the European Federation of Scientific Societies, and is President of the Scientific Council of WWF Italy. He is a member of several international panels (IUCN, UNEP), as well as the EU Academy of Science. He is the coordinator of several EU and international projects. He is the author of 450 international papers and of 3 books. He has received the Prize BMC Biology (London, 2010), the Award of French Society of Oceanography (2011), and the ENI Award “Protection of the Environment” (2013). He has been recognized by ExpertScape as the most influential World Scientist in the Category “Ocean and Seas” and Marine Biology for the decade 2010-2020. His research interests are mainly focused on marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and organism interactions, with a multi- and interdisciplinary approach aimed at preserving marine life, goods, and services for eco-sustainable development.

Dr. Nathan Jack Robinson is a marine biologist and science communicator whose research uses novel camera technologies to study charismatic marine megafauna while simultaneously engaging global audiences in marine conservation. During his career, he has been at the center of several viral videos. These have included a video of him removing both a plastic straw from the nostril of an endangered sea turtle and filming the first footage of a giant squid in US waters. He received a Master of Marine Biology at Southampton. Next, he moved to Purdue University, where he received a Ph.D in Biological Sciences. After completing his formal education, he accepted a job as the Field Director of the Goldring-Gund Marine Biology Station in Costa Rica, before moving to The Bahamas as the Director of the Cape Eleuthera Institute. He currently works as a Ramon y Cajal fellow at the Institut de Ciencies del Mar.

Dr. Donato Giovannelli is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Naples Federico II, where he works on the coevolution of life and the planet. He is also an Affiliated Scientist at the Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo, a Visiting Associate Research Professor at Rutgers University, USA, an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Marine Biological and Biotechnological Resources of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRBIM) in Ancona, Italy, and a guest investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), USA. He received his B.Sc. in Marine Biology (2005) and M.Sc. in Marine Ecology (2007) from the Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy, and his Ph.D. in Applied Biology, Microbiology and Ecology in 2013 from the University of Naples Federico II. Together with his group, he combines classical microbiology techniques with fieldwork and computational tools to reconstruct geo-bio interactions. The majority of this work is carried out in extreme environments, ranging from deep-sea and shallow-water hydrothermal vents to hot springs and volcanoes, the subsurface, and Antarctica.

Dr. Sascha Flögel is a senior scientist at IFM-GEOMAR Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel (Germany). He received his PhD studies there in 2002. He led the projects ARCHES—Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies (2018–2021) and ARIM-FUEL—Development of a submarine fuel cell (2018–2021). He has published over 70 papers in various journals. His research topics mainly include the use of numerical climate and biogeochemical models (full coupled GCMs, Earth system models of intermediate complexity, and biogeochemical box models) in global and regional climate research, along with the growth and distribution of cold-water corals (e.g. Lophelia pertusa) and their relation to the hydrographic regime of the ambient water masses.

Dr. Sergio Stefanni has been a researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn since 2016. He completed his PhD studies in Marine Biology at the University of Bristol in 2001. His research interests include molecular ecology, population genetics and the phylogeny of marine organisms. He mainly studies fish and sharks, from coastal areas to the deep sea, with a focus on cryptic species and provide novel molecular tools for fishery and conservation management strategies. He has been involved in several studies addressing questions on marine biodiversity using metabarcoding approaches and the use of eDNA. He has engaged in projects in collaboration with the Institute of Robotics of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (Italy) for the development of bioinspired vehicles for marine research, and has joined several expeditions in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean (some of which as Chief scientist) and has worked as the Principal Investigator in various international projects

Dr. Damianos Chatzievangelou is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Renewable Marine Resources of the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC; Barcelona, Spain). He has worked for 10+ years with visual and oceanographic data from fixed and mobile monitoring platforms, including VENUS and NEPTUNE observatories of Ocean Networks Canada and the Internet Operated Deep-sea Crawler “Wally” (main pilot from 2016 to 2021). His interests include marine ecology and biodiversity (mainly deep-sea habitats) and his research line focusing on applying probabilistic computational approaches to study ecologically key or commercial species, vulnerable or impacted communities and habitats, with applications in real-life marine ecosystem monitoring scenarios with intelligent networks of robotic platforms (incl. fisheries, deep-sea mining, restoration of deep-sea Marine Protected Areas, among others.).

Dr. Giacomo Picardi is a computer engineer who specializes in automation and robotics. He completed his PhD in BioRobotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2020. Later, he became a Postdoctoral Researcher there. In 2023, he moved to ICM-CSIC, Barcelona (SPAIN) as a Postdoctoral Researcher. His research topics mainly include control systems, marine technology, marine technology, bioinspiration, underwater robotics, and legged robots.

Prof. Bernard Foing is a French scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA). He has a PhD in Astrophysics and Space Techniques. He worked for 3 years in Chile as an astronomer for the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the French embassy, and as Professor of Astrophysics. He has been a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) since 1986. Foing obtained the habitation for direction of research in 1990. At ESA since 1993, he has been Senior Research Coordinator at the Research and Scientific Support Department. He was president of ILEWG between 1998 and 2000 and is now their Executive Director. He has published over 400 articles, including 160 refereed papers, in lunar and planetary science and exploration, solar/stellar physics, and astrobiology. He has edited 16 books and organized over 50 international conferences and symposia.