MACNA 2014 just got a little better with the addition of three pioneering marine scientists to its already impressive speaker lineup. The Board of Directors just announced the addition of these three speakers: Dr. Todd LaJeunesse (a pioneer in the field of coral-algae symbiosis), Dr. Charles Mazel (founder of NightSea and expert in coral fluorescence) and Jamie Craggs (Curator of Aquatics at the Horniman Museum and Zoo in London). As the organizers point out, the common theme with these presenter’s topics “it’s one of discovery, exploration and pushing the envelope.” The official press release is below with more details.
Presenting a trio of pioneering marine scientists to our speaker lineup
June 18, 2014
Dear members of the Press,
The MACNA 2014 committee is proud to announce an exceptional selection of pioneering academic and scientist speakers to enrich the lineup of presentations. MACNA is a conference created and produced by avid saltwater aquarium hobbyists, a fact which is well represented in our speaker lineup of many professional aquarists.
However there is a huge pool of reef biology and ecology knowledge in the scientific community that we are excited to be tapping into for this year’s conference. In addition to our exciting Keynote speaker Dr. Luiz Rocha, we are proud to announce three more academics from various fields of coral, reef and aquatic sciences.
Dr. Todd LaJeunesse is one of the most pioneering researchers in the field of coral-algae symbiosis and his methods are used everyday around the world to characterize the different “species”of Symbiodinium known as ‘Clades’and ‘Sub-Clades’. Symbiotic corals are an ecosystem unto themselves and we aquarists can learn a great deal by understanding more about the different types of zooxanthellae, how they interact with our corals and the myriad ways that coral and reef health is closely tied to the community of Symbiodinium present within them.
Dr. Charles Mazel is the founder and lead researcher of NightSea, a company which focuses on fluorescence viewing and imaging technology. Like Symbiodinium, there is a lot we can learn about corals from the fluorescence that our corals display. With the advent of more and specific LED colors in the progressive reef aquarium lighting space, it is now commonplace for reefers to discuss light colors in terms of specific wavelengths and peaks, all of which have corresponding fluorescence excitation characteristics. If you’re a fan of multicolors LEDs to bring out the best color in your corals, you definitely wont want to miss this exciting presentation by Dr. Charles Mazel.
If ground-breaking work with coral spawning is more your thing, then you’re going to love the presentation by Jamie Craggs. Jamie is the Curator of Aquatics at the Horniman Museum and Zoo in London who made waves this year by spawning Acropora in an aquarium this year. Coral spawning is not that rare in small captive aquarium setups but where Jamie stands out is that he did it on purpose on the first try! By faithfully reproducing nearly all environmental parameters of natural reefs and their cycles in an aquarium environment, Jamie succeeded in spawning Acropora valida and even timing when they would spawn to within days. If you think “Limited Edition”corals are exciting, just you wait until we begin building on Jamie Cragg’s work to spawn and rear truly unique new strains of corals that are not even found in the ocean.
If there’s a common theme with our scientific and academic presenter’s topics it’s one of discovery, exploration and pushing the envelope. These three pioneering presenters are sure to lay down some information-dense talks at MACNA and if you are truly into understanding coral at a fundamental level, Mazel, LaJeunesse and Craggs are NOT to be missed. You are encouraged to help get the word out about our selection for the academic presentations but please refrain from publishing your stories until Thursday June 18th, 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We are very excited to have these three speakers giving their pioneering presentations at this year’s MACNA and we look forward to seeing you there.
Sincerely yours,
MACNA 2014 Board of Directors.
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