Research group

Ocean Justice

Plastic pollution in the sea by Naja Bertolt Jensenon

We are at the intersections of transdisciplinary ocean studies and concepts of global and environmental justice, exploring how to decolonise our engagements with the ocean and understandings of justice.

About

The Ocean Justice group aims to explore what the ocean brings to the meaning of justice, the presence and representation of the ocean in courts and law, and how we can unlearn and decolonise both our engagement with the ocean and understandings of justice in transdisciplinary manners.  

In 2022-23 we had a launch meeting that focused on how to build the group and on submitting a report to the International Seabed Authority Intersessional (ISA) Working Group on intangible and tangible Underwater Cultural Heritage and the insertion of this concept on their current draft of the ISA Mining Code. The report was co-authored with Mekhala Dave from Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary:

A Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary Submission in Collaboration with Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute Special Interest Group on Ocean Justice (ISA Council’s Intersessional Working Group on Underwater Cultural Heritage, 15 May 2023, pp. 24–34).

For 2023-2024, we plan to hold an international and transdisciplinary hybrid Ocean Justice panel. We hope that the conversations that begin at this panel in early 2024, can be continued during a sandpit and writing retreat with members from the group. This retreat will allow a few members of the group to put together 2 main outputs: a brief publication on ocean justice and a funding bid to spend more time exploring this concept via a larger research project.

We also run a termly reading group, which includes both published work and work-in-progress to support scholars across the University and outside. We hold our discussion on an MS Teams group

To find out more about the Ocean Justice Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champions Giulia Champion and Dina Lupin.

Join the SMMI Community to sign up to this group, and any others of interest to you. 

(Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensenon)

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Philip Leadbitter

Research Fellow (PSDI)

Research interests

  • Digital lab Notebooks and paperless note-taking
  • Human and technological road blocks to paperless note-taking
  • Use of Autonomous Underwater Platforms to further research in remote ocean regions
Connect with Philip

Dr Phillip Fenberg

Associate Professor

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Phillip

Professor Phyllis Lam

Professor

Research interests

  • Dr. Lam's research interest lies in the functional roles of microorganisms in biogeochemical cycling, particularly the nitrogen and carbon cycles, in diverse marine and aquatic systems. In collaboration with researchers inside and outside the university, her work integrates state-of-the-art molecular ecological techniques, stable isotopic analyses, process rate measurements, hypothesis-driven experimentation and modelling, to disentangle complex microbial interactions and their impacts on biogeochemical environments especially in the context of global change.
  • Current research topics include:
  • Shortcuts in the nitrogen cycle – novel pathways and microbial players for nitrogen remineralisation in the ocean’s twilight zoneMicrobial carbon remineralisation pathways and fluxes in the mesopelagic oceanUsing proteomics tools to disentangle active microbial nitrogen and carbon cycling processes in oceanic oxygen minimum zonesImportance of particle-associated microeukaryotes on the efficiency of oceanic biological carbon pumpMicrobial production and consumption pathways of greenhouse gases
Connect with Phyllis

Professor Prof Larry Lynch

Head of School

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Prof Larry

Dr Qin Zhou

Lecturer in Operations Management

Research interests

  • Applications: Operations Management: closed-loop supply chain management, production outsourcing, remanufacturing management (authorization and outsourcing), technology innovation, Nash bargaining, contract design.Marketing-Operations Management Interface: trade-in, strategic consumers behaviour, fairness concerns, anticipated regret.Marine Policy: clean technology innovation, abatement decision. Methodologies: Game theory, optimization.

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Qin

Professor Rachael James

Professor of Geochemistry

Research interests

  • Enhanced rock weathering and other techniques for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
  • Novel isotopic signatures of biogeochemical cycling, including iron, chromium, lithium and magnesium, and the response of biogeochemcal cycles to global environmental change
  • Exploration for new sources of metals and elements critical for emerging green technologies, including lithium and the rare earth elements

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Rachael

Dr Rachel Bynoe

Lecturer B

Research interests

  • Human origins
  • Quaternary landscape and environmental change
  • Submerged landscapes
Connect with Rachel

Dr Ramsey Selim

Head of Business Development,CORNERSTONE
Connect with Ramsey

Dr Rand Ismaeel

Senior Research Fellow
Connect with Rand

Dr Ranga Dinesh Kahanda Koralage BSc (Hons), PhD, FHEA

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Zero-Carbon Energy Systems: Hydrogen and altrenative zero-carbon energy systems 
  • Clean Combustion Technology of Hydrogen, Ammonia, Biofuels and Synthetic fuels: internal combustion engines, gas turbines, thermal boilers
  • Green Hydrogen Production Using Renewable Energy: Process systems engineering, Scalability and energy management

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Ranga Dinesh

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.