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Rui SANTOS received his Ph.D. in Biology from University of Dalhousie, Halifax, Canada (1993). Appointed as Assistant Professor at University of Algarve in 1993 and promoted to Associate Professor in 1999, in 2005 he received Habilitation in Marine Ecology. RS has more than 25 years of academic experience teaching in the areas of Marine Botany, Ecology and Ecophysiology at undergraduate and graduate levels. He has supervised 14 post docs, 11 Ph Ds and 45 masters’ students. RS research has focused on marine algae and seagrasses at multiple integrative levels, from genes to ecosystem management. He has published on the biology, ecophysiology and ecology of marine plants, regulation of marine plant production, role of marine plants on ecosystem functioning and effects of anthropogenic impacts including eutrophication and climate change. He is now focusing on the ecosystem services of marine plants. RS is the coordinator of the research group Algae-Marine Plant Ecology of the Center of Marine Sciences of University of Algarve that presently includes 2 professors, 1 Researcher, 4 Post Docs, 4 graduate students and 2 technicians. He has over 150 scientific publications. RS has a large experience in the coordination of multi-disciplinary teams, chaired a 4-year European COST Network (Action ES0906 “Seagrass productivity: from genes to ecosystem management), which involved over 130 scientists from multiple disciplines including genetics, physiology, ecology and economy and coastal managers from 19 European countries and 2 Australian Universities. He has been involved as a coordinator or as a participant in 10 European and 30 national research projects. He is Associated Editor of the journal Estuaries and Coasts, a member of the Editorial Boards of Marine Environmental Research and Marine Ecology and has served as reviewer of research projects for the EU COST and FAIR programs and for the Ministry of Education of Romania (EEA grants), AXA Research Fund, national foundations of NCF-Norway, FCT-Portugal, DFG-Germany, Fondecyt-Chile, NSF- USA and NERC-UK. RS has also a large experience in public outreach of science in the form of public talks, training teachers or on media news. He leads the scientific input of an environmental education network for ecosystem services of coastal systems involving public schools and education centers. He has been contracted several times by private or governmental institutions for scientific input to issues related to ecological status of coastal ecosystems, eutrophication impacts, invasive species, seaweed harvest and resource management, aquaculture and algal bloom characterization and monitoring. |
