Two years on: 2020 Stanley Gray Fellowship award-winner Denise Swanborn

Following her achievement in being awarded the Stanley Gray Fellowship by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology, Denise Swanborn has shared some details of her progress to date and what lies ahead for her.

Denise received the award in 2020 to support her PhD research on seabed and habitat mapping in the Indian Ocean, conducted at the University of Oxford and in collaboration with Nekton. Her work has been well-received by the marine science community.

One paper from her thesis, consisting of a review into the application of seascape ecology to the deep seabed, was published in Limnology and Oceanography in 2021, another paper on the geomorphological drivers of mesophotic coral reef ecosystems has been accepted for publication in Coral Reefs, while a third paper is awaiting final peer-review ahead of publication. Two other papers from her thesis, focusing on seamount ecosystems, are currently undergoing peer-review. Denise has also contributed elsewhere to similar research and aims to submit her final thesis this summer. While the project has faced some practical fieldwork obstacles given the COVID pandemic, datasets from previous expeditions in the Indian Ocean have provided her with an existing source of research.

She is a familiar presence at marine conferences, having given presentations at GeoHAB for the last two meetings as well as the Deep Sea Biology Symposium in 2021.

Denise Swanborn, SIMarEST: ‘Being awarded the Stanley Gray Fellowship was an incredible recognition and I am delighted that I have been able to continue my research into the relationship between deep seabed structure and biodiversity in one of the least-studied areas of the world. I look forward to continue to develop our understanding of the deep-sea marine environment and working with other professionals to further expand scientific research in the field to inform sustainable management of the deep sea.’