Our People

Dr Gerald Boalch is a marine phycologist and has worked at the MBA since 1958, for the first thee years as International paints research Fellow and then as phycologist on the staff. From 1993 to 1999 he also served as Bursar and assistant to the Director. He has published a number of papers on seaweed ecology and distribution, and on the taxonomy, ecology of marine phytoplankton. For over 50 years he has recorded the phytoplankton species in tow net samples taken weekly from station L4.

On leaving school in 1963 I worked as a technician in the plankton section of the marine fisheries laboratory in Aberdeen, completing an honours degree at Aberdeen University betwen 1972 and 1973, before moving to The Plymouth Marine Laboratory in 1977. In 1999 I transferred across to the MBA and was awarded a PhD in 2000 by Plymouth University.

My career has been research on a wide range of plankton groups, studying distribution, vertical migration, feeding, digestion, biochemistry etc., much of it in relation to modelling fish survival. I have also produced identification guides for European and Indian Ocean zooplankton.

I am now retired, but do contract plankton analysisis for the MBA and also involve myself in plankton training and education projects at all levels. I am currently doing a lot of plankton photography, in preparaton for a photographic identification guide book of European zooplankton.

I have worked as a marine scientist for over 55 years, mainly at the Marine Biological Association but with a period of 13 years as Professor of Marine Biology at Bangor University. My research interests include: the environmental effects of hydrothermal vents, hydrocarbon seeps and submarine ground water seeps (including their roles in geochemical cycles and benthic production); the behaviour, biochemistry and physiology of bivalves and frenulate pogonophores with methanotrophic and chemoautotrophic bacterial symbionts; the biochemical and population genetics of fish and barnacles and the distribution and home ranges of fish in estuaries (including their spawning and nursery grounds). My research areas have ranged from the Mediterranean to mid-Atlantic and the Arctic and from Panama to the Gulf of California and northwards to the Canadian coast in the NE Pacific, using research vessels from 9 different countries.

My MBA links commenced in1979 with a NERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship on interactions between intertidal limpets hosted by Alan Southward (AJS).

This followed my PhD at Port Erin (Liverpool University) on experimental rocky shore ecology. When a Lecturer at Manchester University (1980), I became a frequent visitor to the MBA collaborating with AJS on long-term change in relation to climate fluctuations and recovery from the Torrey Canyon oil spill. This continued when back at Port Erin (1987-1995) and at Southampton (1995-1999), enabling re-start long-term intertidal time-series.

When Director of the MBA (199-2007), I re-started offshore time-series to measure I re-started offshore time-series to measure responses to climate change, as well as working on experimental ecology and eco-engineering approaches for eco-sensitive design of sea-defences.

MBA links continued from Bangor (Head of Natural Sciences, then PVC 2007-2010) and Southampton (Dean, Natural and Environmental Sciences, 2010-2015), before returning in 2016, at first on sabbatical and since “retiring” in 2017.
I am an active fieldworker surveying around 40 shores a year and serve on grant panels (Singapore, HK, European) and advisory boards (Biodiversa +). Winner of Carlo Heip Award for marine biodiversity research 2020.

From a young age, I have been fascinated by where marine things are and how they ‘work’. My PhD (1971-1974) on Water Movement and the Ecology of Sublittoral Rocky Areas reflected opportunities that scuba diving offered in marine research. When the Nature Conservancy Council ‘discovered’ marine environments, I was, with others, able to start surveying the shore and shallow seas around Britain, leading to my appointment as Head of the Marine Nature Conservation Review of Great Britain in 1987. By 1998, I was discussing with the Director of the Marine Biological Association Michael Whitfield, how databases, the internet etc. could bring together information for marine environment management, protection and education: the Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN). Although retiring in 2007, I continue to contribute to the work of the MBA as an Associate Fellow. Having published over 60 journal papers or chapters in books, my activities now are mainly disseminating my knowledge, editing the annual report on South-West Marine Ecosystems, contributing to the development of the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, diving and photography. In 2014, I published Marine biodiversity conservation: a practical approach and in, in 2018, Exploring Britain’s Hidden World: a Natural History of Seabed Habitats.

Prof. Linda K. Medlin has worked previously as Head of Research at Microbia Environnement, France, at the Observatoire Oceanologique of UPMC, France and at the AWI, Germany. She received Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1983 in marine botany. Her expertise is in marine phytoplankton and their evolution/phylogenetics. She has worked for over 20 years in developing phylochips/microarrays/biosensors for early warning systems for toxic algae and freshwater pathogens and for analyzing marine biodiversity. Published 250 papers, 37 books chapters, two edited books and one manual for microarray analysis. Awarded 52 research grants of which 18 are EU. 3X winner of the Tyge Christensen award for best paper in Phycologia and the Provasoli award for best paper in Journal of Phycology. Elected foreign member of Norwegian Academy of Science for her pioneering work in phytoplankton phylogenetics. Her 1988 benchmark publication for first PCR primers for 18S gene opened the door for rRNA genes as biodiversity genes.