Dr. ir. Veerle Huvenne, a Research Leader at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, was originally trained as Bio-Sciences Engineer at Ghent University in Belgium. She further holds an MSc in Oceanography from the University of Southampton and a PhD in Marine Geology from Ghent University. She has >20 years of experience in the fields of marine habitat mapping and sediment dynamics, with the aim to develop an understanding of complex deep-sea environments such as submarine canyons, cold-water coral settings, hydrothermal vents and seamounts. She is particularly interested in the study of deep-sea vertical cliffs, their dynamics and communities. 

Dr Huvenne has extensive expertise working with new technologies and marine robotic systems such as AUVs and ROVs, and often works closely with the engineering teams on the development of new sensor or vehicle capabilities. Dr Huvenne has participated in 40 scientific cruises, coordinating several of them, and has spent >900 days at sea so far. She has participated in a large number of EU and UK funded projects, and was Principal Investigator on the ERC Starting Grant CODEMAP. She is currently leading workpackages in the projects iAtlantic, CLASS, SMARTEX and ECOWind-ACCELERATE with the aim to develop robust habitat mapping and seafloor monitoring approaches to support the sustainable management of our marine environment. 

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