Christina Braoun

The fact of being born in a Greek island where I was spending 8 months a year in the sea snorkeling and diving brought me very close to the marine environment and has therefore somehow imprinted my life path.

During my Biology B.Sc studies in order to gain real experience on studying the marine environment, I conducted a 7 month internship at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) in Crete (Greece) where I focused on population genetics and biodiversity of marine invertebrates. This Internship gave me the opportunity to live the life of a marine researcher and understand how important it is to preserve our oceans and their biodiversity.

During my Master studies the fascinating coral reefs quickly captured my interest. I took the chance to conduct several presentations on them and then started to realize that behind the image of the colorful and full of life coral reefs, that is spread over the bright media cover, there is the sad truth that they are actually vulnerable and towards death ecosystems. I wrote an essay about tourism management on the Great Barrier Reef, the largest and most complex coral reef ecosystem on Earth, and learned a lot about the engagement of researchers for preserving the reefs all around the world.

Since then, my desire to be part of this international effort of protecting these vulnerable and so important for humanity ecosystems has been anchored in my future plans.

September 2016