World Conference on Marine Biodiversity

The world conference on marine biodiversity (WCMB) welcomes presentations on all aspects of marine biodiversity, both fundamental and applied sciences. This year, the WCMB will be fully virtual because of uncertainties in participants ability to travel.

The year 2020 is significant in being a deadline for both the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets and UN Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 14 on the oceans, and is a starting point for 2030 goals and the UN Decade of the Oceans.

The conference programme will be designed to accommodate varying time-zones. It will enable all participants to view all talks and posters, even those in parallel sessions, at a time of their choosing. All materials, abstracts, programme, posters, talks, keynote presentations, and ‘breakout rooms’ for live discussion between participants, will be organised through one website. Side events to encourage live interactions between participants will be organised.

Speakers will include:

• Professor Robert Poulin, Zoology Department – University of Otago
• Professor Madeleine van Oppen, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow – University of Melbourne and the Australian Institute of Marine Science
• Moriaki Yasuhara, Associate Professor of Environmental Science in the School of Biological Sciences and the Swire Institute of Marine Science – University of Hong Kong
• Steve Gaines, Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management – University of California
• Aulani Wilheim, Senior Video President – Conservation International Center for Oceans
• Maria Dorneals, Microbiologist – Deputy Director of the Centre for Biological Diversity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland

For further information: www.wcmb2020.org/