Andreu Rico
Dr Andreu Rico is a National Geographic Explorer and works as researcher at the Ecotoxicology group of the IMDEA Water Institute (Spain). His work is dedicated to assess the occurrence and ecological risks of chemical pollution in aquatic ecosystems, with focus on ecotoxicological experiments using invertebrate communities. Within the last years, he has been involved in several research projects and field monitoring campaigns in Europe, South-East Asia and Latin America. He is the coordinator of the Silent Amazon project and will lead the 2019 expedition.
Andrea Waichman
Prof. Andrea Waichman works in the Department of Biology of the Federal University of the Amazon (Brazil). In the past, she worked as Director of the Research Foundation of the Amazon State of Brazil (FAPEAM). Sha has ample experience on the fields of aquatic ecology, ecotoxicology and risk assessment in tropical regions and has published several studies on the impact of pesticides on aquatic ecosystems and human health. She will provide technical and logistic support to the 2019 Silent Amazon expedition and will be the main local contact person for data analysis and dissemination.
Gabriel Nunes
MSc Gabriel Nunes is a freshwater sponge researcher from the Plankton laboratory at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (Brazil). He has participated in several expeditions throughout the Amazon aimed at the understanding the ecology of those ecosystems as well as the sociology and anthropology of the indigenous and riverine people. He will participate in the 2019 Silent Amazon expedition and will collaborate in the collection and processing of samples.
Rhaul de Oliveira
Prof. Rhaul de Oliveira is collaborator professor at the Technology Faculty of the University of Campinas (Brazil). He has experience on the aquatic toxicology of emerging contaminants and on the use of zebrafish as model organism for ecotoxicological risk assessments. He has participated in several research projects in Europe and has experience in the monitoring of large rivers. He will join the 2019 Silent Amazon expedition and will collaborate in the dissemination of research outcomes.
Sara Villa
Dr Sara Villa currently works at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). She has participated in several research projects aimed at assessing the environmental fate of persistent organic pollutants, including rivers and mountain lake ecosystems. Within Silent Amazon, she will be in charge of the analysis of persistent organic pollutants and fragances in water, macrophytes and fish.
Luca Nizzetto
Dr Luca Nizzetto is a senior researcher working at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (Norway). He has done several investigations on the global emission and fate of persistent organic pollutants. Currently he is involved in several research projects aimed at understanding the sources and pathways of plastics and microplastics into the environment. Dr Nizzetto will provide support to the analysis of plastic and microplastic samples collected during the project.
Belén González-Gaya
Dr Belén González-Gaya works at the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the Marine Station of Plentzia from the Basque Country University (Spain). She is currently developing target and non-target analytical techniques for emerging contaminants in water and biota samples. Within Silent Amazon, she will focus on the identification of perfluorinated compounds and will test non-target analytical approaches with fish samples.
Marco Vighi
Prof. Marco Vighi worked as professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milano-Bicocca until 2015. Currently he is member of the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) of the European Commission and leads the Ecotoxicology group of the IMDEA Water Institute (Spain). He has over 160 publications on applied ecology and ecotoxicology. He will contribute to Silent Amazon by supervising the experimental approach and by contributing to data interpretation and discussions
