Biography

Felix joined the group at the beginning of 2020 after completing his Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s degree in Marine Spatial Planning at Universidade dos Açores, Università Iuav di Venezia and Universidad de Sevilla in autumn 2019. After a year a GIS technician on the iCRAG funded WindEaZ project on Developing Offshore Wind Energy Seabed Zonation tools, collaborating with Eirwind, he now assists on the MaREI Western Atlantic Mussels (WAM) and iAtlantic projects.

His Master’s thesis addressed the role of marine protected areas in the resilience and recovery of tropical coral ecosystems following the 2016 pan-global bleaching event across shallow to upper-mesophotic depths. To study this, Felix investigated atoll and fringing reefs in Pohnpei, Micronesia. Previously, Felix had been awarded the 2016 European Rolex Scholarship for aspiring marine scientists and SCUBA divers, and a BSc (Hons) from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. For his BSc project, Felix studied the last glacial maximum and post glacial quaternary history of a strait in western Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic. He now works is a PhD student on ABC_Celtic Sea.

Research Interests

Felix’s research interests include sedimentology, paleoceanography and paleoecology to understand climate change, the conservation of marine ecosystems threatened by global warming as well as blue solutions to halt anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Publications

Butschek, F., Peters, J., Remmers, T., Murphy, J, Cummins, V. & Wheeler, A.J. (2023). Geospatial dimensions of the Renewable Energy Transition — the importance of prioritisation. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 100713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2023.100713 

O'Reilly, L., Fentimen, R., Butschek, F., Titschack, J., Lim A., Moore, N., O'Connor, O.J., Appah, J., Harris, K., Vennemann, T., Wheeler, A.J. (2022). Environmental forcing by submarine canyons: Evidence between two closely situated cold-water coral mounds (Porcupine Bank Canyon and Western Porcupine Bank, NE Atlantic), Marine Geology, 454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2022.106930.

O'Reilly, L., Lim A., Titschack, J., Moore, N., O'Connor, O.J., Appah, J., Fentimen, R., Butschek, F., Harris, K., Vennemann, T., Wheeler, A.J. (2022). Using novel methods to track British and Irish Ice Sheet dynamics since the Late Pleistocene, along the west Porcupine Bank, NE Atlantic. Quaternary Science Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107463

Wheeler, A.J., Lim, A., Butschek, F., O’Reilly, L. & O’Driscoll, P. (2021). The “Little MonSta” deep-sea benthic, precision deployable, multi-sensor and sampling lander array. Sensors, 21, 3355. doi: 10.3390/s21103355 

Peters JL, Butschek F., O’Connel R, Murphy J, Cummings V, Wheeler A (2020) ‘Geological seabed stability model for informing Irish offshore renewable energy opportunities’ in Advances in Geosciences

Butschek F., Arosio R, Noormets R, Austin WEN & Howe JA (2018) ‘Late Weichselian glacial history of Forlandsundet, western Svalbard: an inter-ice-stream setting’ in arktos doi: 10.1007/s41063-018-0063-x

Professional Activity

Awards & Honors

FLAD-UAc ’Crossing the Atlantic’ mobility research grant (2019)

East-West Center Affiliate Scholar Award (2019)

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Scholarship (2017-2019)

Our World-Underwater European Rolex Scholarship (2016-17)

SAMS Council Price for Academic Excellence (2016)

SUT Undergraduate Scholarship (2014-2016)

Erasmus+ Undergraduate Exchange Scholarship (2014-2015)

UHI Student Development Fund Award for training to become a scientific diver (2013)

Government of Canada Scholarship to Pearson College UWC (2009-2011)