​Carlos Duarte, director of the University's Red Sea Research Center and the Tarek Ahmed Juffali research chair in Red Sea ecology, was named the first recipient of the Carlo Heip Award for outstanding accomplishments in marine biodiversity science. Duarte will receive the award at the Carlo Heip Award ceremony, which will take place on May 15 in Montreal, Canada.

"Any award given by colleagues is particularly valuable, as they are truly poised to evaluate the contributions of their peers. Being recognized for my research in marine biodiversity as an outstanding contribution conveys the esteem of the research community in this area and my colleagues' appreciation for my contributions over the year. It is a major stimulus to strive towards achieving excellence in this area and collaborate with colleagues toward this goal," stated Duarte.

Duarte is a world leader in different branches of biological oceanography and marine ecology, including in seagrass meadow ecology. He has published on all aspects of seagrass ecology, and his work has led to the development of blue carbon strategies, providing a drive for the conservation of vegetated coastal ecosystems. He has authored over 630 publications that have been cited 42,000 times and was included on the Thomson Reuters list of highly cited researchers in 2005, 2014 and 2015.

Duarte and the late Heip established the World Marine Biodiversity Conference series, organizing and chairing the first of these conferences in Valencia, Spain. Duarte will also feature as a keynote speaker at the upcoming World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB) in Montreal from May 13 to 16.

"The late Carlo Heip was a friend and a collaborator in many projects—in scientific research and particularly in building the first European community and later a global community of practice in marine biodiversity, an important area of research that was lacking dedicated societies or conferences. I felt very sad and sorry for his loss and will be proud to receive an award carrying his name. I will also have the opportunity to talk about our joint research and efforts at community building during my plenary talk," Duarte noted.

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