Dr. Andrew Moss Conservation Social Scientist

Dr. Andrew Moss (Conservation Social Scientist, Chester Zoo) has over a decade of visitor research experience in world zoos and aquariums. He has led over fifty evaluation research projects and has numerous publications, in journals such as Conservation Biology, the Journal of Environmental Education, Visitor Studies and Nature.

Specialising in quantitative research methods, particularly the structured observation of visitors, Andrew is interested in the ‘real-time’ effects of zoo animals and exhibits on their visitors. Most recently, Andrew was commissioned by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) to lead the largest ever zoo and aquarium visitor impacts study (30 institutions; n>6,000). Andrew is a respected peer-reviewer for ten journals, as well as for funding bodies such as the National Science Foundation. His expertise is valued both within the zoo community and in academia – he is an Associate Fellow at the University of Warwick and a member of the research and education committees for British and European zoo accreditation organisations.

Rachel Lowry Chief Conservation Officer

Rachel Lowry is Chief Conservation Officer at WWF-Australia, where she leads and support a team committed to making our world a better place. She was Director of Wildlife Conservation and Science at Zoos Victoria and President of International Zoo Educators Association. Rachel led a team at Zoos Victoria that oversees the organizations wildlife captive breeding and recovery projects, eco-socio projects, environmental sustainability, collection planning, research and animal welfare. Rachel is also advisor to Australia’s Threatened Species Commissioner, and Past Chair and Director of the Centre for Sustainability leadership.

Rachel has developed award-winning programs that have tackled conservation and sustainability issues both locally and globally, with the ‘Don’t Palm us Off’ campaign being one that has helped raise the profile of what zoos can achieve through community conservation campaigns. In 2010 Rachel was awarded Sustainability Leader of the year by WME within the Government and NGO sector. In 2011 she was profiled in Melbourne’s Top 100 most influential people through The Age newspaper. In 2012, Rachel led a team whose sustainability initiatives secured Zoos Victoria the title of the world’s first carbon neutral zoo. Rachel is currently working to raise the profile of Victoria’s most threatened terrestrial vertebrates.  

Dr. Eric Jensen

Dr. Eric Jensen is an internationally-recognised social scientist specializing in innovative methods of conducting impact evaluation research in informal learning and public engagement contexts.

Dr Eric A. Jensen is a social scientist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge in sociology. Author of Doing Real Research: A Practical Guide to Social Research (SAGE), Dr Jensen brings extensive methodological expertise in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods social research and evaluation. Jensen has been working in science communication research and practice since 2001, beginning with a National Science Foundation-funded project on International Ethics and Equity Issues Relating to Biotechnology. ensen has delivered hundreds of training workshops on evaluation methods and evidence-based science communication, as well as leading and consulting on projects large and small on public engagement with research, impact evaluation, socially responsible research and environmental communication. Jensen’s latest book is Science Communication: An introduction. He works on the Responsible Research and Innovation Networking Globally social research project as a Senior Research Fellow at ICoRSA. He is part-time professor at the University of Warwick and visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Psychological Research of Sigmund Freud University.

Alessandra Bizerra Professor

Professor at the University of São Paulo, Alessandra holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences, a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences (Zoology) and a PhD in Education, all from the University of São Paulo.

She is currently a professor at the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo and treasurer of the Brazilian Association of Teaching of Biology (SBEnBio - National).

She has experience in Education, working mainly in the following subjects: non-formal education, scientific dissemination, learning and teaching of science, production of didactic materials.

Judy Mann Conservation Strategist

Judy is passionate about marine conservation and has focused her career on helping people to care for the oceans. She has worked for the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) in Durban since 1992. She was the Director of Education for 10 years, the uShaka Sea World Director and the first woman Chief Executive Officer of SAAMBR.

She is currently the Conservation Strategist of the Association. Judy holds a PhD from the University of Queensland in Australia, where she studied how best to inspire visitors from multiple cultures to care for the environment. She holds a Master’s Degree in Ichthyology (Fish) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. She was the international advisor to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association Conservation Education Committee and serves on the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication. Judy is currently the President Elect of the International Zoo Educators Association.

Dr Silvio Marchini Research Associate

I am interested in the human dimensions of human-wildlife interactions and, ever since my doctoral work at the WildCRU on the “Human Dimensions of the Conflicts between People and Jaguars in Brazil”, I have been dedicating to the dissemination and strengthening of conservation social science and its application to conservation practice.

My work has involved a variety of human-wildlife conflict issues, including big cats and ranchers in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico; sea lions and fishermen in southern Brazil; wild boars, capybaras, tapirs and farmers in agricultural landscapes; and coatis, marmosets and visitors in urban parks and protected areas of the Atlantic Forest. I am currently based at the Laboratory of Wildlife Ecology, Management and Conservation of the University of Sao Paulo in Piracicaba, where I supervise students and teach a graduate course on Human Dimension of Wildlife Management and Conservation. I have taught this course to graduate students and wildlife professionals also in other parts of Brazil besides Oxford, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Bolivia.

In the last few years, I have turned my interest to the integration of social sciences, spatial modelling, and big data analytics, and how to apply this to decision-making and systematic planning and policy, bridging the gap between researchers, planners, managers and policy-makers. As a Research Associate under the Chester Zoo / WildCRU Partnership, I am exploring ways to upscale the analysis and management of human-wildlife conflict, and developing a unified framework for understanding conflict and coexistence in South America, taking advantage of a set of project partners in a wide cross-section of ecological, cultural, socioeconomic and political contexts in Brazil and Bolivia.

Dr. Joseph Roche Assistant Professor

Dr. Joseph Roche is an astrophysicist and Assistant Professor in science education at Trinity College Dublin. He has worked for NASA and observed symbiotic stars using the Hubble Space Telescope.

He teaches Science & Society and Communicating Science on a Master in Science Education programme at Trinity College and is course coordinator of a Postgraduate Certificate in 21st Century Teaching and Learning. His current research interests include: informal science education, citizen science and evaluating public engagement in science.

Brady Wagoner Professor

Professor Brady Wagoner (University of Aalborg) is a world-leading expert in idiographic methodology and memory. He is Director of the Cultural Psychology MA programme at Aalborg University. He did his PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he developed innovative new methods to study cultural and constructive processes.

In particular, he has done work on conversational remembering, impact evaluation in zoos and art museums, therapeutic encounters, among others. Additionally, he has devised research strategies that synthesise qualitative and quantity methods by using the latter to situate and contextualise cases analysed qualitatively.

Camila Martins Coordinator of Education Department

Coordinator of the Education Department at Parque das Aves (Brazil). She leads a team of educators and mediators that engage in connecting people with nature through educational activities based on social learning. She is a biologist, with a master’s degree in Wildlife Conservation from the Federal University of São Carlos/São Paulo Zoo (Brazil). She has a Ph.D. in Science Education at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), where she investigated the connection between zoos and school through environmental education training programs for teachers.

She is a biologist, master in Wildlife Conservation by Federal University of São Carlos/ São Paulo Zoo (Brazil) and currently a Ph.D. student in the Science Education Post-Graduation Program at University of São Paulo (Brazil), investigating the connection between zoos and school through environmental education training programs for teachers. Contributes as a member of the Environmental Education Department of São Paulo Zoological Society and has great interests in environmental education research and learning process in informal contexts. She is part of the GREEN Group – Research Group on Environmental Education and in 2014 she created the Research Group on Environmental Education at Zoo.

Jessica Norberto Research Fellow

Jessica has a Ph.D. in Education from the University of São Paulo (USP) and a Master's Degree in Scientific and Cultural Communication from the University of Campinas (Unicamp). Currently, she is a Science Communicator at the Foundation Science Centre and Higher Distance Education of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Cecierj Foundation), Research Fellow of the Institute for Methods Innovation (IMI), and Researcher of the National Institute of Public Communication of Science and Technology (INCT-CPCT / Brazil).

She has practical experience in science outreach programmes, such as in the management of mobile science centres and museums and as a teacher in training courses, and in the works developed at the Centre of Science Dissemination from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), at the projects of implantation Espaço do Conhecimento da UFMG and of PONTO UFMG Itinerant Museum, at the Natural History Museum in London, and as a member of the organizing and judge committees of several National and International Science Fairs.