About Us
Who we are
Transects are established sampling strategies, and in this case the 4Site Pacific Transect runs from Hawai’i to French Polynesia and will be anchored at research hubs on Oahu (University of Hawai’i), Palmyra (The Nature Conservancy), Moorea (University of California Gump Station and CNRS-EPHE CRIOBE), and Tetiaroa (Tetiaroa Society). The sites offer a spatial, sociocultural, and biogeographical gradient and representation of both high islands and atolls. The partnership between these institutions will leverage already existing data on each site and create new research and monitoring programs across sites to help promote a sustainable future for Oceania 4Site members are intimately connected to local communities and/or decision-makers that are involved in managing coral reef systems and planning sustainable futures. In addition, the United Nations Decade on Ocean Science provides a platform to disseminate and influence stakeholders within and beyond the Pacific Islands, providing a pathway for outsized impact of the proposed project. The partnership between these institutions will leverage already existing data on each site and create new research and monitoring programs across sites to help promote a sustainable future for Oceania.
Founding Members
The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique’s and Ecoloe Pratique des Hautes Etudes’s CRIOBE marine research station
The Center for Pacific Island Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa
The Nature Conservancy’s Climate Adaptation and Resilience Laboratory (CARL) and Global Science program
University of California Gump South Pacific Research Station
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology
Tetiaroa Society and Ecostation
Executive Committee
Deron Burkepile, Professor, University of California Santa Barbara; Associate Investigator – Moorea Coral Reef Long-term Ecological Research platform, deron.burkepile@lifesci.ucsb.edu
Dr. Burkepile has a B.A. in biology and chemistry from the University of Mississippi and Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology on the role of herbivore diversity in affecting the ecology of coral reefs. He was a Brown Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University studying the role of body size in how African ungulates impact community dynamics and ecosystem processes, then Assistant Professor at Florida International University before moving to UC Santa Barbara in 2015. The Burkepile Community Ecology lab focuses on questions that provide fundamental understanding about the ecology of communities and ecosystems while informing the conservation and restoration of these systems.
Joachim Claudet, Senior Scientist, CNRS, CRIOBE, joachim.claudet@cnrs.fr,
Dr. Claudet specializes in marine protected area (MPA) evaluations and linked social-ecological research at the land-sea interface, using place-based case studies to inform management or meta-analyzes to impact policy. He is interested in research that helps solve sustainability problems, identify solutions that benefit both nature and people, and develop indicators and decision-making tools. Lead author of two IPBES assessments, he is involved in several scientific committees and international working groups such as the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the Blue Climate Initiative or the Ocean and Climate Platform. Joachim Claudet edited a book on MPAs at Cambridge University Press..
Neil Davies, Director of University of California’s Gump South Pacific Research Station, University of California-Berkeley, ndavies@moorea.berkeley.edu
Dr. Davies is Director of the University of California’s Gump South Pacific Research Station on Moorea, which hosts the only coral reef site in the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. He is a founding board member of Tetiaroa Society and the Blue Climate Initiative. As a Research Affiliate with the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, Davies studies social-ecological systems, building the collective intelligence needed for a flourishing planet through the FAIR Island Project, Island Digital Ecosystem Avatar (IDEA) Consortium, and Blue Infrastructure for Democratic Ecological Actions (Blue IDEAs). Davies graduated in Zoology from the University of Oxford and has a PhD in Genetics from University College London. He serves on the board of the Genomic Standards Consortium and is co-author of the book “Biocode: The New Age of Genomics” (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Annaïg Le Guen, Director of Research and Services, CRIOBE, Annaig.LEGUEN@cnrs.fr
Dr. Annaïg Le Guen holds a doctoral thesis in physics on fluid dynamics and transfers. Since 2018, she’s been director of the research and services unit at the head of the USR CRIOBE, one of the most eminent French laboratories for the study of coral ecosystems. Her background includes management of very large research infrastructures (synchrotrons, marine fleets for research, super telescopes). Using the experience linked to large facilities opened to the international scientific community, the objective was to implement open access rules to a CNRS field station in French Guiana and to foster the station to the international level. She created a network of five field stations opening their facilities to experimentation in ecology. CRIOBE is a member of this national network.
Judy Lemus, Interim Director, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) – University of Hawai’i, jlemus@hawaii.edu
Dr. Lemus is a marine science and education specialist and Interim Director at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) at the University of Hawaii. She received her M.S. degree in Biology from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the University of Southern California. Dr. Lemus previously served as Marine Advisory Program Leader for USC Sea Grant and Director of Education for the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at USC. Her science research focuses on symbioses and invertebrate physiology. She currently designs innovative science curricula and develops collaborative partnerships that promote community-science interactions, integrate science and culture, facilitate science learning, and provide professional development opportunities for both young and established scientists.
Alexander Mawyer, Associate Professor, The Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, mawyer@hawaii.edu
Dr. Mawyer is also Editor of The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs and Co-Director of the University of Hawai‘i’s Biocultural Initiative of the Pacific. He’s conducted fieldwork with the Mangarevan community in the Gambier and Society Islands of French Polynesia and with Chuukese and Mortlock communities in the Federated States of Micronesia. His work has focused on language at the intersection of culture, nature, and history. His publications cover a diverse range of topics including culture and spatial cognition in Oceania and semantics of natural kinds and landscape terms in Eastern Polynesian languages. Currently he serves as an adviser to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) West Hawai‘i Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) and is a member of the Scientific Council of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme du Pacifique.
Kassie Morton, Global Science Project Manager, The Nature Conservancy, kassie.morton@tnc.org
Kassie Morton is a project management and program support professional with a BA in Environmental Policy and City Planning. She’s worked for TNC since 2015 and is currently focused on ocean conservation initiatives such as ocean sewage pollution awareness and the 4Site partnership. Kassie’s career has focused on conservation and sustainability issues including renewable energy, green building, agricultural development for smallholder farmers and conserving nature.
Frank Murphy, Executive Director, Tetiaroa Society, fmurphy@tetiaroasociety.org
Mr. Murphy grew up in Southern California, but has lived and worked in French Polynesia since 1992. He holds BAs in Biology and Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz, and an MA in Geography from UC Berkeley working on Holocene sea level indicators in French Polynesia. He has been Manager and Associate Director of the UC Berkeley Gump Research Station, and owner of an adventure travel company, Tahiti Expeditions. He is now the Executive Director of the Tetiaroa Society, which facilitates scientific research and carries out conservation programs, natural and cultural history tours, and educational programs on the private island of Tetiaroa.
Alex Wegmann, Senior Scientist, The Nature Conservancy in California, alex.wegmann@tnc.org
Dr. Wegmann develops and implements conservation science strategies and projects throughout the Pacific. Dr. Wegmann served as Palmyra Program Director from 2016 into 2019 and as Science Director for TNC’s Palmyra Program from 2019 into 2021. and led the development of before joining TNC, was Program Manager for Island Conservation-U.S. Pacific Islands and Micronesia.
Nicholas Wolff, Climate Change Scientist-Global Science, The Nature Conservancy nicholas.wolff@TNC.ORG
Dr. Wolff is responsible for ensuring that climate change implications are incorporated into TNC’s decision making and strategy development. To offer informed advice, Dr. Wolff engages in cutting-edge research on climate change impacts on a variety of ecosystems, including savannahs, rain forests and coral reefs, using the latest climate models and data. Central to his role is the ongoing search for practical, affordable conservation solutions to the climate adaptation and mitigation challenges facing nature and people.