The project One healthy ocean

Another addition to the REV Ocean team – meet our new Communication Manager, Lawrence Hislop! Hailing from the beautiful Canadian city of Montreal, Lawrence has a graduate degree in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute in Monterey, California. Throughout his career, Lawrence has worked at the interface of environmental science, policy, and communications, with a particular focus on the Polar regions, high mountain areas, and the global oceans. Lawrence enjoys working in visual communications and has produced successful photography exhibits, infographics and documentaries for the Arctic Council, UNEP, ICIMOD, the University of the Arctic and other partners. As a photographer, he built up the GRID-Arendal photo library which includes hundreds of free high-resolution environmental images available for download. Before joining REV Ocean, he managed the Climate and Cryosphere Project (CliC) of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), based at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Going out in the field and getting hands-on experience has been a high priority for Lawrence and he has been fortunate to join research cruises, high mountain expeditions, and has worked closely with Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic and other parts of the world. On one occasion, Lawrence was stuck in dense fog in on the island of Uummannaq in Greenland, and the primary helicopter used for transport to the nearest airport could not take off. Through local connections, he managed to travel by dogsled and snowmobile over melting spring sea ice to catch a flight from Qaarsut to his onward connections. Lawrence is a camera enthusiast and has an extensive collection of 4x5 film equipment, as well as underwater, drone, and hyperspectral image recording gear. Over the years, he has received more than 20 international photographic awards including the Black+White Magazine Competition Award for Nature Photography, Communication Arts Awards, and multiple nominations for the International Photography Awards (IPA). Being a cold climate lover, Lawrence is generally more comfortable hanging out in -20°C than +20°C temperatures. He enjoys all flavours of winter sports, water sports and high elevation activities. When he’s not roaming around in the high Arctic, Lawrence can be found trimming the cedar trees around his house in the coastal forests of Lions Bay, Canada.

Give a warm welcome to Annetta – REV Ocean’s new Administrative Coordinator. Arguably the most important person on our team, she will ensure that all organizational cogwheels run smoothly and help steer REV Ocean in the right direction in the years ahead! Annetta has several years of experience as an administrative professional, mainly from the oil and gas industry but most recently at Baker Hughes, a GE company, where she worked six years as an Executive and Administrative Assistant. Prior to this she worked 16 years in SAS as a flight attendant. She has project experience as a Conference Coordinator within the electronics industry and as a junior consultant for customer relations studies within the oil and gas industry. Being half-Italian, Annetta spends every summer in the south of Italy where her father hails from. Having seen the changes in the Adriatic sea over the years and the result of excessive plastic littering, she recently decided to join the ambitious endeavor to help save the world ocean. We’re very happy you decided to join us Annetta!

Last week Operational Director Øystein Mikelborg and Science Director Alex Rogers went on a tour of Norway, meeting potential partners and collaborators. Despite snow, ice and high winds they were given a warm welcome in Tromso by Senter for hav og Arktis, Norsk Polarinstitutt and UiT The Arctic University of Norway, before heading to Trondheim to meet colleagues at NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Sintef Ocean. As Alex says: "It is great to see ocean science so buoyant in Norway and we’re excited to start discussing science and our missions!"