CCR Diver Sonia Rowley Wins Sir David Attenborough Award

Published 10 years agoon October 31, 2016

In May 1937 the Systematics Association was founded as the “Committee on Systematics in Relation to General Biology”. The idea was to provide a forum to discuss theoretical and practical problems of taxonomy.

Today the Systematics Association furthers all aspects of Systematic biology. This includes organising conferences, training courses and awarding grants to support systematics research.

In the last few days it has been confirmed that Dr Sonia J Rowley, a deep CCR diver from the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, USA has received the prestigious Sir David Attenborough Award for Fieldwork from the Systematics Association and the Linnean Society of London.

Sonia is only the second person to receive this award. It was given for her for her work during the 2015 Pohnpei Expedition. Her report was entitled the “Exploration and Systematics of Twilight Reef Gorgonian Corals at Pakin Atoll, Micronesia.”

Other members of the 2015 diving expedition team were Brian Greene and Dr Richard Pyle.

Congratulations Sonia!

Rosemary Lunn

Roz is the Founder of The Underwater Marketing Company, Co-founder of EUROTEK, and established TEKDiveUSA. She is a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, a BSAC Advanced Instructor, and a rebreather and Trimix diver. Before moving into the PR field she worked as a full time recreational instructor in the UK and abroad, on History Channel and National Geographic documentaries, as a safety diver, and modelled underwater.