Ocean Experts - Individual

Dr. La Viña is an educator, lawyer and advocate of environmental and human rights issues. He is the Dean of the Ateneo School of Government in the Philippines and simultaneously serves on the board of national and international organizations on the environment and social entrepreneurship. Prior to this, he worked for eight years at the World Resources Institute based in Washington, D.C. From 1996 to 1998, Dean Tony was appointed Undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines. He is a leading expert on climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and environmental law with dozens of published books, articles and papers.

Dr. La Viña obtained his Masters (LLM) and Doctorate in Law (JSD) from Yale Law School. His Bachelor of Laws is from the University of the Philippines and his undergraduate degree in A.B. Philosophy is from the Ateneo de Manila University.

Dr. Keita Furukawa received a Dr (Eng.) in Civil Engineering in 2004 from the Waseda University, Japan. He has almost 30 years’ experience with marine and coastal environmental research, coastal ecosystem restoration and ocean policy. Estuaries, Tidal-flats, Seagrass beds, Coral Reefs, and Mangrove Forests are the field of interests. His career includes a researcher position at the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM: former PHRI) from 1988 to 2013, visiting research fellow at Australian Institute for Marine Science (AIMS) from 1994 to 1996, and affiliate professor of Yo kohama National University ( YNU) from 2008 to present. Since April 2013, he is working at OPRI/SPF on Ocean governance, Blue Economy, Ocean Education, Maritime Security, and Integrated Coastal Management. He has been served as one of leading scientists for corroborative research project “Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management (ICOM): From National Policy to Local Implementation” in the ocean development sub-committee under Japan-France Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement since 2009 with Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (IFREMER).

Choong-Ki Kim is a research fellow for the Division of Natural Resources Conservation in Korea Environment Institute (KEI). His study area includes ecosystem service, nature based tourism, climate change adaptation, and ocean renewable energy. His previous work at Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, was to develop a decision supporting tool, InVEST, to value the  benefits from nature. He applied the InVEST models to various decision contexts to inform decisions for sustainable development. He also worked in numerical modeling studies with scales ranging from an estuary to a regional ocean. The focus had been on hydrodynamics, marine water quality, thermal discharge effects, storm surge prediction, transport processes of marine organisms, coupled biological-physical processes, and land-sea interaction.

Dr. CHOU Loke Ming is Adjunct Research Professor at the Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore. He obtained his PhD in Zoology from the University of Singapore in 1976. His research on coral reef ecology and integrated coastal management covers Southeast Asia. His current research focus is reef restoration and he is particularly interested in how corals can be re-established in the highly turbid conditions of rapidly developing coastal areas. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Biology and a Fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Science.

Dr. Chua served as PEMSEA's Regional Programme Director for 15 years. Under his able leadership, PEMSEA evolved from a project-oriented entity focusing on coastal management into a regional collaborative organization for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA). His expertise in coastal and marine area management, and knowledge in coastal and ocean affairs has contributed greatly to the successful implementation of various PEMSEA programs and activities in the region, including the establishment of ICM sites in the region, the creation of the PEMSEA Network of Local Governments for Sustainable Development (PNLG), and the cooperation among various stakeholders and the East Asian countries in adopting the SDS-SEA as framework and ICM as tool for coastal and marine management in the region.

After retiring from his post in 2007, Dr. Chua continued to guide PEMSEA when he was elected as the first Chair of the East Asian Seas Partnership Council until 2013. As Council Chair, Dr. Chua's provided significant support in laying out the building blocks toward the transformation of PEMSEA into a country-owned self-sustaining international organization focusing on coastal and ocean governance in East Asia.

Dr. Chua has authored more than 200 papers, articles and a number of books on coastal and ocean management, including The Dynamics of Integrated Coastal Management, which is considered as one of the key resource materials for academicians, coastal managers and policymakers. He has been a recipient of several awards from societies and governments.