Our Advisors

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Prof. Victor Smetacek

Chief Scientific Advisor

  • Prime mover of the idea of Sargassum Aquafarms, Victor is internationally recognised as an expert in ocean ecology and carbon cycling. He is a Professor emeritus for Biological Oceanography at Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre Polar and Marine Research and University of Bremen.

    For more information about Victor’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Mar Fernández-Méndez, PhD
Leader of the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group SiDe-EFFECT at Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre Polar and Marine Research and CEO of MacroCarbon

  • Support in marine biogeochemistry and algal ecology.

    For more information about Mar’s research, visit her ResearchGate profile.

Achim Randelhoff, PhD 
Oceanographer at Akvaplan Niva 

  • Support in monitoring of carbon and nutrients in seawater.

Allanah Paul, PhD 
Biogeochemist

  • Support in ocean biogeochemistry and carbon monitoring.

    For more information about Allanah’s research, visit her ResearchGate profile.

Antonia Thielecke, M.Sc. 
PhD candidate at Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre Polar and Marine Research 

  • Support in ocean biogeochemistry and carbon monitoring.

    For more information about Antonia’s research, visit her ResearchGate profile.

Miriam Philippi, PhD
Biogeochemist at Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

  • Support in Sargassum carbon and nutrients uptake.

    For more information about Miriam’s research, visit her ORCID profile.

Evelyn Raquel Salas Acosta, M.Sc.
Environmental System Engineer at The School for Field Studies 

  • Support in Sargassum, engineering and coastal ecosystem ecology.

    For more information about Evelyn’s research, visit her ResearchGate profile.

  • Support in satellite monitoring and albedo measurements.

    For more information about Geoff’s expertise, visit his LinkedIn profile.

Julia Schnetzer, PhD 
Marine Biologist

  • Support in Marine Microbiology.

    For more information about Julia’s expertise, visit her LinkedIn profile.

Prof. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann 
Professor for glycobiochemistry & carbon sequestration at the University of Bremen with its Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, the MARUM and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology 

  • Support for glycobiochemistry of macroalgae derived carbon sequestration.

    For more information about Jan-Hendrik’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Wim M. van Rees, PhD 
Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Support in Ocean Engineering and Numerical Simulations of Fluid Dynamics

    For more information about Wim’s research, visit the website of his lab.

Hagen Buck-Wiese, PhD 
Post-Doctoral Researcher at University of Southern California

  • Support in dissolved carbon excreted by macroalgae and microbes.

    For more information about Hagen’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Prof. Laurenz Thomsen  
Professor at Department of Marine Sciences at University of Gothenburg 

  • Support in downstream processing of algae for deep sea storage.

    For more information about Laurenz’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Matthias Wietz, PhD
Microbiologist at Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research & Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology  

  • Support in microbiology of the deep sea.

    For more information about Matthias’ research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Leila Kittu, PhD 
Biological Oceanographer at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel  

  • Support in ocean biogeochemistry, carbon and nutrient monitoring.

    For more information about Leila’s research, visit her ResearchGate profile.

Geoff Smith, PhD 
Director at Specto Natura

Morgan Reed Raven, PhD 
Assistant Professor at Department of Earth Science at University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Support in biogeochemistry of the deep sea.

    For more information about Morgan’s research, visit her ResearchGate profile.

Raymond W. Schmitt, PhD 
Physical oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

  • Support in Ocean Engineering and Fluid Dynamics.

    For more information about Raymond’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Steffen Swoboda, PhD 
Marine Biogeochemist at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel 

  • Support in Deep Sea Biodiversity and Impacts.

    For more information about Pedro’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Prof. Pedro Martínez 
Professor for Marine Biodiversity Research at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Head of Senckenberg am Meer German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research and Managing Director of INES – Integrated Environmental Solutions

  • Support in ocean biogeochemistry and carbon export.

    For more information about Steffen’s research, visit his ResearchGate profile.

Dave Brookes
Engineering Advisor, decades of experience in deep water and subsea engineering

  • Dave brings his global reputation and decades of experience in deep water and subsea engineering for the Oil and Gas sector to the renewable energy industry.

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Jaime Cano

Lead of Commercial Operations

  • Jaime is a senior business executive, with extensive global telecom experience having founded and partnered with multiple companies.

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Franziska Pausch

Scientific Communications

  • Using her experience in marine biology and award-winning science communications abilities, Franzi brings passion and clarity to Seafields’ output.

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Erick Contag

Co-Founder

  • Erick is a strategist, who is passionate about building and operating sustainable digital infrastructures. He has over 30 years of executive management, entrepreneurship, marketing & sales, and business development expertise.

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Jan Petzel

Non-Executive Director (NED)

  • After obtaining his master in engineering at the ETH in Zurich, he went on to work for McKinsey & Co, added an MBA, and then built his private equity experience in Goldman’s Merchant Banking business. Over the past 8 years, he has been leveraging his corporate experience in supporting green technology businesses to institutionalise and successfully scale. Most relevantly, he was an early investor in CarbonClean, became their Board Chairman, and supported their scale-up to their recent $150m fundraise to enable the global roll-out their carbon separation technology.

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Juan Puente

European Finance

  • With over two decades of experience, Juan helped pioneer the use of the Internet in Spain since 1995. He has led websites attracting millions of unique monthly users, working with multicultural teams. In addition to his digital expertise, He’s contributed to environmental efforts by collecting and returning more than 8,000 tonnes of plastic back into the ecosystem.