The inagural webinar for the ScienceDIVER project, “Capacity building and harmonization of scientific diving in Europe – Professional acknowledgment of scientific divers” gathered 143 participants around the world on the 2nd of December. A brief introduction of the project has been done to get aware the audience. The primary goal of the webinar was to present the outcomes of the performed study on the professional recognition of scientific divers. Other expert panelists expanded the topic. The discussion highlighted the complexity of the matter and confirmed the persuasion that the dialogue with the community within the two next webinars and thereafter will give the opportunity to develop reliable framework, training programs, common standards and recognition of scientific divers at European level as well as at global level.
Guest panelists included Piotr Bałazy, Researcher and Scientific Diving Officer at the Polish Academy of Sciences and Phil Short of Dark Water Exploration.
• Dr. Pitor Balazy is a researcher with significant experince in the fields of Marine Biology, Benthic Ecology, Polar Ecology and Scientific Diving. Dr. Balazy participates in numerous international scientific diving projects and has a breadth of scientific publications. Furthermore, he is head of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IO PAN SD) team and served as the host of the 5th European Scientific Diving Conference.
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• Phil Short is a professional diver hailing from the United Kingdom. In 1993, Mr. Short was involved in forming one of the first Trimix wreck diving teams in the UK. Today he is one of the UK’s foremost IANTD Instructor Trainer Trainers and the Training director of IANTD UK. Additionally, he is an active member on the International Association of Nitrox Divers (IANTD) HQ Board of Advisors. Dr. Short is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) in 2018
Video recording of webinar in mp4 format:
• Presentation of ScienceDIVER introduction here
• Professional Recognition of Scientific Diving Assessment here
• Guest Panelist Philip Short: “European Scientific Diving” here
