Team Leader:

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Celine Goslinga

3rd year Hons Geography (& Researcher)

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Celine is leading the expedition, focusing on the research projects and grant applications. She will also be carrying out the data collection for her dissertation project, on long term impacts on coral reefs of the Tsunami in 2004. Celine has been involved with the Exploration Society since her first year at uni, as Dive Officer on the Egypt Expedition. In her second year she took on Treasurer of the then newly founded Sri Lanka Expedition. Inspired by these journeys, she decided to test what she’s learned and commit to leading a new team out to Sri Lanka this year. A certified First Aider and PADI Rescue Diver with over 100 open water dives under her belt, Celine will be sure to look after everyone!

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Researcher, Planning & Permits Coordinator:

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Esther Whitford

3rd year Hons Marine and Freshwater Biology

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Esther is planning to do her honours project in Sri Lanka, focusing on marine plastics and how human populations impact the levels of plastics along the shoreline. Esther has always had a keen interest in conservation so this expedition has provided an excellent opportunity to expand her knowledge and study something that is becoming an ever increasing issue.

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Esther has a PADI open water diving qualification and is hoping to advance these qualifications in Sri Lanka. She has also done her bronze and gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards which have not only given her great team work skills but have also taught her how to spend long periods of time with the same people and not kill them!

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This Sri Lanka trip will be a once in a life time opportunity and she is incredibly excited to be a part of it. She is looking forward to spending her 21st birthday out there and will probably spend the majority of the trip suffering from heat stroke and sunburn!

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Researcher, Grants & Sponsorship Coordinator:

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Andrew Middleton

3rd year Hons Marine and Freshwater biology

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This will be Andrews first expedition with the University but he is excited to learn new skills in research and scuba diving. Andrew is interested in using any new technology for analysing marine environments and is hoping to use acoustic measurements to look at species diversity.

 

Having grown up on the west coast of Scotland Andrew has engaged in most of the water sports around from kayaking to windsurfing growing in him a love for the sea and all its species. Andrew has worked as a fund raiser for charities and has done other fundraising such as a sponsored abseil so will be looking forward to helping raise money for the Sri Lanka expedition and will be taking on the responsibility of applying for grants. Andrew has already done some previous field work in the form of the national dragonfly survey and will be preforming more throughout his 3rd year.

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Researcher, Grants & Trusts Coordinator:

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Maria Player

3rd year Hons Zoology

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Maria will be working on her research project during this expedition and will be involved in the grant application process. She will be using indicator species such as clams and crown of thorns starfish to study the overall health of the coral reef system.

She has previous experience working with a coral reef conservation project in Thailand where she learnt different techniques for hitching coral fragments onto different types of artificial reef structures. She also gained experience conducting different EMP surveys on invertebrates, vertebrates and substrate types. During her time in Thailand, Maria, also achieved her open water and advanced diving certifications.

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Researcher, Travel Coordinator:

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Jamie Crowther

3rd year Hons Marine and Freshwater Biology

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This will also be Jamie’s first expedition with the intention of collecting data for his fourth-year honours project. He will be assessing why Carcharhinus melanopterus (Black tip reef shark) congregate and spawn at a particular location around Pigeon island and not in other locations of similar characteristics. This will be done by collecting environmental data and dropping baited remote underwater video (BRUV) devices.

 

Jamie is third year Marine and Freshwater Biology student, having lived on the west coast of Scotland in his formative years he has a keen passion for the sea and the outdoors. Particularly enjoying mountain biking, wildlife photography and sea kayaking. He already has his PADI Advanced Open water and is excited to be doing his PADI rescue diver out in Sri Lanka to assist in the collection of data for some of the other honours projects. Having completed a month-long internship in South Africa primarily studying Great White sharks and large cetaceans he is no stranger to field work or working in a team and is very excited to get out there enjoy the vast array of marine life found off the coast of Sri Lanka.

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Outreach Coordinator:

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Priyanka Chandi

3rd Year Hons Psychology

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Priyanka is Co-leading this expedition. She spent her last summer in south-west of Sri Lanka doing a clinical psychology placement working in various mental health facilities: teaching English, implementing therapeutic activities and working one-to-one with patients with various mental health difficulties and learning disabilities.

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Her focus is planning the logistics of the expedition as well as collaborating with outreach programmes and setting up links with the local community. As she has previously travelled to Sri Lanka before and was integrated into the culture and customs, she'll make sure the team will be well prepared!

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Team Treasurer:

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Emelie Adenlof

2nd year Hons Business & Management

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Her previous experience includes positions as Project Manager for TEDxUniverityofGlasgow, treasurer and lecturer for Speak up for Paris (an initiative connected to the COP21 conference in Paris 2015) and board member of Schools for the Future (an educational charity organisation active in Latin America).

 

As an enthusiastic diver, Emelie has over 80 logged dives and will be doing her PADI Rescue Diver certificate in Bali this winter. Her motivation for joining the expedition is to gain insight to the Sri Lankan culture whilst learning more about both academic and practical ways to work with research and ocean conservation.

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Fundraising Coordinator & Dive Officer:

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Adriana Victoria Barnett Del Pozo

Access Course

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Adriana is a 25 year old undergraduate Biology major born in Inverness and and has been fortunate enough to have traveled a bit since. Born to a Scottish father and Spanish mother, making her half Spanish, half scottish and bilingual (Spanglish is her language of choice though), she grew up in Singapore, Houston (USA), Inverness and Sevilla (Spain) and went on to study Biology at the University of Granada.

 

Adriana fell in love with the Ocean at a young age and by 18, she had started to dive with a diving school in the south of Spain, where she has since become a PADI certified Rescue Diver and EFR. She is currently doing an Access Course at the University of Glasgow to apply for the Marine and Freshwater Biology Bsc 2018 and looks forward to learning how she can become a sea hero!

 

As a passionate nature enthusiast, she loves eco-tourism and anything ‘outdoorsy’. She is always up for a challenge and takes adventuring very seriously! She love to travel the world, try out different snow and experience foreign mountains, as well as checking out new dive spots. Her favourite hobby: chilling out with the local wildlife underwater or up mountains! Inspiration in life: to help save the Oceans!

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Sponsorship Coordinator & Film Maker:

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Jack Rawlinson

2nd year Hons Zoology

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An adventurous 19-year-old from the North of Scotland in their second year of studying Zoology at the University of Glasgow. He has had a keen interest in all things sports and animal related for as long as he can remember and is currently part of the University Badminton Team. For 4 years now, he has had a growing ambition for Wildlife photography and videography from which he sells his photos all over the world, hence he is our expedition’s Social Media Co-ordinator and Filmmaker. He has also completed the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award on top of his bronze and silver which has equated to 500+ hours of volunteering.

 

Jack hopes to progress after his 4-year undergraduate degree onto a Masters in Wildlife Filmmaking where the ultimate Career goal lies. Jack has already been on a previous expedition with the University spending 3 months in Tobago conducting research and conservation work on Sea turtles, frogs and bats.

 

Going to Sri Lanka was an opportunity not to be turned down, going off on expedition and researching animals out in their natural habit is a dream and is what he loves to do. The experiences he will gain and fun he will have will stay with him for a life time. He is particularly looking forward to working with marine life when diving as he has had experience underwater obtaining the PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water course and will complete the PADI Rescue Diver course when in Sri Lanka.

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Social Media & Blog:

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Andrew Matthews

2nd year Hons Environmental Science and sustainability

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For Andrew, this is his first expedition with the University of Glasgow and is highly enthusiastic to gain a new and valuable experience from working with sponsors and social media to being out on the field aiding with research. Andrew enjoys hiking wherever he can and has done many camping trips immersing himself in the wilderness. He is part of the CUCBC rowing club and is also working towards his D of E Gold. His favourite hobby is playing piano and hopes to make the most of this in fundraising!

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From this expedition, Andrew wishes to help contribute to the field of biological and ecological science helping with conservation to protect the precious oceans in any way he can, aid team researchers and raise awareness around the condition of coral reefs!

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