The ERI are delighted to announce that Larissa Macedo Cruz de Oliveira from the ERI and the UCC School of BEES and the Department of Geography has been named winner of the prestigious ESAI Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award 2022.

Larissa’s research focused on advancing seabed mapping techniques for deep-water habitat classification in submarine canyons and cold-water coral habitats (ASMAT). Cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are complex structural habitats that represent one of the most important deep marine ecosystems.

This research explored computer vision techniques to further understand CWC habitats in marine protected areas. This research was supervised by Prof. Andy Wheeler and Dr. Aaron Lim, UCC.  

Environ 2023

Larissa received her prize at the opening ceremony of Environ 2023 – the 33rd Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium jointly hosted by ESAI & Atlantic Technological University Donegal, which took place from 3rd-5th April 2023. Larissa also gave a guest lecture at the ESAI AGM during the conference.

The ERI was pleased to sponsor a delegation of 12 postgraduate students from a range of disciplines  across UCC – including engineering, biology, air quality, economics, law and chemistry - to attend and present their work at the conference.

Pictured below are the delegation with ERI Manager Dr Paul Bolger who hosted a conference workshop on "Getting ready to be a sustainability professional" – prompting discussion from participants on whether their PhD is preparing them to be future sustainability professional and leader.