The Iberian Seminar on Marine Chemistry, the Physical Oceanography Meeting, the Iberian Meeting on Toxic Phytoplankton, the International Science Conference of the Campus do Mar, the Cíes Heritage Workshop and the International Symposium on Marine Science, ISMS 2018, will gather in Vigo, between 20 and 22 June, around 400 participants, with the aim of bringing together all the scientific knowledge of international interest in the field of marine sciences. The sixth edition of the ISMS, which will also serve undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students to present their first scientific works, was presented this afternoon at an event in which the rector of the University of Vigo and the mayor of Vigo highlighted the relevance of the event, which Mato defined as “the congress of congresses”. The dean of the Faculty of Marine Sciences of the University of Vigo, Belén Rubio, who, together with her counterparts from the universities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Cádiz, Valencia, Alicante and Barcelona, is in charge of organizing this event, emphasized the importance of a symposium “which is the only one on marine sciences held in Spain and in which the six universities where this degree is taught are represented”, explained the head of the center, who was accompanied in today’s presentation by the director and head of Talent Acquisition of Campus do Mar, Emilio Fernández and Elsa Vázquez, respectively, as well as by representatives of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and the Institute of Marine Research-CSIC, who, together with the City Council of Vigo, are collaborating in the organization of the international symposium, which will be held in the Auditorio Mar de Vigo.
“The symposium represents a meeting point between researchers who work on the advancement of the different disciplines that make up marine sciences and involves making a deep and rigorous analysis of where actions should be directed to take advantage of the potential that the oceans have for growth and development, with particular interest in the coasts, due to the high population density that settles there,” explained Rubio, who highlighted the great multidisciplinary nature of the thematic areas that will be addressed in the different congresses, which range from ocean modeling or the health of marine ecosystems, to marine geology and the conservation and management of living and geological resources, including technologies for observing the oceans.
Outstanding speakers and a very diverse scientific committee
The botanist and algologist Marina Montesor from the Zoological Station of Naples; the researcher from the Marum in Bremen Oscar Romero, who studies the effects of changes in biodiversity and climate on the critical function of marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles; the researcher from the University of Liège Aida Alvera, who works on the implementation and validation of 3D hydrodynamic models or the researchers Jorge Cortés from the University of Costa Rica and Jörg Schéfer from the University of Bordeaux, are some of the international speakers who have already confirmed their presence at the symposium. “The program of plenary lectures is almost complete and all the invited speakers are first-line researchers, with a high international representation”, highlights Rubio, who also highlights the international nature of the scientific committee with representatives from France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Tunisia, Lebanon and the United States.
Regarding the communications program, Rubio confirmed that all of them will have a peer review to guarantee the quality of the papers presented. “For now, we offer a series of themes that can fit in, but we will also try to encourage the participation of new researchers,” explains Rubio, who recalls that more than 40% of the research carried out in marine sciences is concentrated in Vigo alone and that the city and its surroundings have one of the largest concentrations of marine research, dissemination and teaching centers in the world.
Scientific collaboration to give muscle to the candidacy of Cíes
In the presentation this afternoon, both the rector and the mayor of Vigo referred to the importance of holding the Cíes Heritage Workshop, which aims to bring together and debate the scientific work that has been done so far on the Cíes Islands and to put in contact all the researchers who develop their activity in this area, with the aim of promoting synergies and possible joint research projects. “In this congress we take another step in the search for Cíes World Heritage and it is they, the scientists, who must evaluate the criteria that we meet to achieve the objective”, said Abel Caballero, who highlighted the fact that Cíes served in the case of Vigo for his city council to become a research promoter.
For his part, Salustiano Mato, emphasized the idea that it must be the scientific community that, with its work, makes visible the evidence that “gives muscle to the Cíes World Heritage candidacy. This is the way to make the dream more real”, assured the rector, who recalled the commitment of the University of Vigo to this project. An involvement materialized last July with the signing of an agreement with the aim of highlighting and gathering the scientific evidence of the archipelago, to present the candidacy to UNESCO.
Source: DUVI
