Current members
Dr. Marie Fujitani
Marie Fujitani believes that interdisciplinary thinking and transdisciplinary science are necessary to understand and support decision-making processes regarding our shared natural resources. With a background in environmental economics and quantitative conservation biology, she is interested in the incorporation of stakeholder participation into resource management and decision making, and how these processes shape and are shaped by values and information. She is committed to co-development of research with partners in practice, and has worked at the science-policy interface at many levels, including for the US government as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her research interests are sustainable coastal livelihoods, deliberative processes, tourism and recreation, fisheries, and aquaculture. She is currently the head of the working group Deliberation, Valuation & Sustainability, as well as the project TransTourism.
Click here for Marie’s full CV.


Dr. Yim Ming (Connie) Kwong
Connie is a cultural geographer who has worked on tourism, development, and geographies of responsibility particularly in Asia. Her research interests lie in three interdisciplinary areas: 1) cultures, identities and practices; 2) moral geographies, responsibility, tourism and development; 3) host-guest relationship and community building for sustainable development. With a background in qualitative research, Connie has also had previous experiences in using mixed methods. She is highly motivated to work with non-academic partners with a participatory approach. She is a Network Member of the UKRI-GCRF Silk Route Cultural Heritage Network (Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher of the project TransTourism in the working group Deliberation, Valuation & Sustainability.
Sarah Zwicker


Ramón Alejandro Plazas Gómez
Ramón is a marine biologist holding an undergraduate degree from Colombia’s Jorge Tadeo Lozano University. He has experience with fish ecology, fisheries and environmental consulting. During his time in Colombia, Ramòn participated in marine cleanup campaigns and mangrove reforestation activities, while experiencing first-hand the damage humans inflict on the environment. For this reason, he came to Germany to attend the master’s program in Aquatic Tropical Ecology (ISATEC) at the University Bremen and ZMT. There, Ramón extended his natural and social science education which stirred his interest in transdisciplinary projects. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at ZMT’s working group Deliberation, Valuation & Sustainability. Within the TransTourism project, Ramòn’s goal is to acquire and provide useful ecological knowledge that enhances the sustainable development of coastal populations. To achieve this, he will focus on the functional ecology of the coral reefs communities, identifying the effects of the tourism-generated wastewater on the marine organisms.
ROALD LEEUWERIK


Jack Pumpuni Frimpong-Manso
Jack has focused his research on water quality issues and gained a lot of experience in this field. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Aquaculture and Water Resources Management (First Class Honours) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana where he also worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Fisheries and Watershed Management. Jack has been awarded a German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship to pursue his master’s degree in International Studies in Aquatic Tropical Ecology at the University of Bremen, Germany. Therefore, Jack is currently a guest scientist at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen where he is part of the working group Deliberation, Valuation & Sustainability. At the moment, he is based in Indonesia doing research on the impacts of wastewater on socio-ecological systems of Gili Trawangan for his thesis.
Sarah Nalukwago
Emma Hanrahan
Alice Pohle
Alice completed her B.Sc. in Geography and international forestry in Freiburg, Germany, before turning her focus to the marine realm within the M.Sc. Ecology at University Bremen. She is interested in interdisciplinary science, coastal management, maritime studies, marine pollution and environmental impact assessment. Currently Alice supports the working group as a student worker (e.g. database maintenance, translations etc.) while also conducting a student research project on legislation and challenges of waste water management in San Andres y Providencia Santa Catalina, Colombia. The TransTourism project will also be the frame for her master thesis about the impact of waste water on marine water quality and benthic community structure in shallow reefs.
