Meet the team

Our fearless reporter: Dewi Satriani of WWF-Indonesia

Dewi is writing, photographing, diving and much more from the media boat accompanying the expedition.

Dewi's position enables her to meet with a wide range of people from urban communities to coastal communities, government officials, corporate workers, scientists, journalists and public figures. Find out more about Dewi.

Asril Djunaidi - expedition scientist

Asril is representing WWF-Indonesia to conduct the turtle survey as well as assist the socio-economic group during the survey.

Asril's main interest is the turtle population and habitats within the region. Interviewing fishers and coastal people, he found out that the small islands surrounding Halmahera are indicated as nesting and foraging grounds for turtles. Threats to the population are coming from extractive use of its carapace and eggs. Find out more about Asril.

Ucu Yanu Arbi - expedition scientist

Ucu Yanu Arbi  – LIPI ( Research Center for Oceanography – Bitung Station). Ucu graduated from Sepuluh November Institute of Technology Surabaya in 2005, with a focus on biology. Ucu joined LIPI in 2006 under the marine resources division. During the Halmahera Expedition, Ucu is conducting the  crustacean survey and collecting shells. This survey is a good opportunity for him to meet international scientists.

Dr. Gerry Allen - expedition scientist

Dr. Gerry Allen, former Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum (1974-1997) is a coral reef fish specialist who has worked extensively for the CI and TNC over the past 11 years. He recieved his PhD from the University of Hawaii in 1971 and since that time has worked throughout the Indo-Pacific region, having logged more than 8,000 hours of diving. Gerry is definitely "old school," in his approach to science, spending nearly as much time in the field as behind a desk looking through a microscope. He is the author of 36 books and more than 400 scientific articles, many of them devoted to the Indonesian region.

Andreas Hary Muljadi - expedition scientist

Andreas was born in Semarang, Central Java – Indonesia on April 27, 1971. He studied Marine Biology and has a Bachelor from Diponegoro University, Semarang. Andreas joined The Nature Conservancy in April 13, 1998 in Komodo, Indonesia and moved to Raja Ampat – Papua, Indonesia in August 2003. Andreas' job in TNC is Marine Biology Monitoring Coordinator and his main duty is coordinating monitoring activities such as Spawning Aggregation Sites Monitoring, Reef Health Monitoring, Resouce Use Monitoring and Occasional Observation in Kofiau, Raja Ampat. Andreas' role in this survey is to count the key fisheries species such as Groupers, Napoleon Wrasse, Sharks, and other big fish, by Underwater Visual Census method.

Emre Turak, expedition scientist

Emre Turak is an expert coral taxonomist and leading exponent of coral reef surveys, monitoring and conservation, as an expert consultant with CORMEC. He has done research on hard-corals in 15 countries across the world, most notably around Indonesia, PNG, the Red Sea, and the Great Barrier Reef. He is a skilled underwater photographer and cameraman, whose work has been shown on national television. Emre is currently working on the Coral Geographic project with Coral Reef Research.

Mark Erdman, expedition scientist

A coral reef ecologist from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Erdmann has spent the past 10 years in Indonesia conducting research and implementing reef conservation programs. While his PhD research focused on the ecology and systematics of stomatopods (mantis shrimp), Dr. Erdmann's other research interests include human impacts on coral reefs (especially from destructive fishing practices such as blast and cyanide fishing), reef rehabilitation techniques, coelacanth conservation, and genetic connectivity of Indonesian marine protected areas (MPAs).

Other scientists joing the expedition include ....

Nurhalis Wahidin, Khairun University
Nurhalis is conducting a benthic coral monitoring during the Halmahera expedition.

Muhammad Erdi Lazuardi, Conservation International (CI).
Muhammad's role in the expedition is doing cover and diversity of benthic community survey.

Indra Bayu Vimono – LIPI ( Research Center for Oceanography)
During the Halmahera expedition he will be conducting Echinoderms survey.

Dr. Lyndon M. DeVantier, Coral Reef Research

Kent E. Carpenter, Professor in Biological Sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
His primary tasks on the Halmahera expedition is to gather data that will help with the GMSA assessments, help complete fish surveys, and complete collections needed for population genetic and connectivity studies for marine conservation planning purposes.

Erick Zulhikman, Ministry of Marines and Fisheries Affair, Indonesia
He will be conducting a socio-economic study of coastal village and fisheries assessment during Halmahera expedition.