Speakers
Mona Webber
Dr. Mona Webber is a marine biologist and Head of the Department of Life Sciences and the Grace Kennedy Foundation, James Moss Solomon Sr. Chair in Environment at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. She conducts research in Jamaica’s marine environment ranging from coastal systems ecology and rehabilitation to water quality and micro-plastics in Kingston Harbour. In addition to her talk, she will host conference participants at an exciting field-trip to the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory, where conference participants will engage in snorkeling, scuba diving, and hands-on learning.
Dr. Webber has approximately 30 years of experience in research and teaching in in Jamaica. She is a member of several Jamaican and Caribbean regional boards and committees; including:
· Association of Caribbean States-Caribbean Sea Commission (Scientific committee),
· Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean,
· National Environment and Planning Agency Technical Review Committee and
· the Scientific Authority to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Mona Webber has authored or co-authored 47 refereed publications, over 41 conference presentations and numerous technical reports. She has raised over US$2.2 million for her research and has supervised or co-supervised over 47 graduate students in a range of marine related topics.
Mona Webber has done extensive work to highlight the importance of mangroves due to the tremendous ecosystem services that they provide and their high rate of loss to coastal development and habitat change. She currently supervises several graduate students in research projects ranging from mangrove assessment and development of rehabilitation techniques, mangrove carbon sequestration and burial to mangrove water quality and levels of contamination with plastics (sediments, water column and organisms).
She also supervises students who work on coral reef nursery propagation, effect of shading on seagrasses, water quality/micro-plastics in Kingston Harbour and ichthyoplankton and fish biomass as indicators of success in Special Fishery Conservation Areas (fish sanctuaries). Thus her work spans the major coastal ecosystems that are critical to the Caribbean.
Dr. Mona Webber received her PhD. In Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography from the University of the West Indies (Mona).
Rayanu Adam
Mr. Rayanu Adam is a 2nd year student at Cornell University pursuing a Bachelor of Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering with a Robotics Minor. At Robotics & turkey 2024 he will narrate his experience being a member of Cornell University's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 41-person team that placed #3 in the August 2024 RoboSub competition in Irvine, California. Mr. Adam gave us a “teaser” of his presentation at the Submerged Summer Robotics Fundraiser.
Rayanu Adam is an active member of Cornell's National Society of Black Engineers. He has been elected Programs Chair for the upcoming school year!
Rayanu’s interests and experience lie in sensors and automation. He hopes to use his knowledge to work on robots that benefit workers in the future. His ultimate career goal involves bringing technology back to his heritage country Togo, and Africa as a whole by working on robots to mine toxic minerals from dangerous areas on Earth.
Mr. Adam is a recipient of the highly selective Gates Scholarship and is a 2022 alumnus of the 6-month MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES). Mr. Adam is a 2023 graduate of the MV STEAM Academy in Mt. Vernon, NY.