02/08/2024 | In 2024, three researchers will spend three months at ZMT as part of the NAM Fellowship Programme. The fellowship by ZMT and Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) is awarded for the 16th time and supports a research stay at the ZMT in Bremen.
NAM Fellows can develop their research skills in the fields of ecology, biogeochemistry, ecological modelling, social sciences and marine coastal systems in the tropics.
Since the programme was launched in 2008, the ZMT has welcomed NAM fellows from countries including Indonesia, Tanzania, Mauritius, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya, Vietnam, Iran, Nigeria, Gambia, Egypt, Jordan and India. Some of these scholarships have developed into research collaborations.
This year's NAM fellows are:
Dr. Banukie Nirosha Jayasuriya works at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka as a Senior Lecturer. She conducts research on the bioactivity of natural products and traditional medicines. Her project at the ZMT is dedicated to the isolation and characterisation of medically important secondary metabolites from inverted jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda Forsskål). She will stay with the working group Experimental Aquaculture and Dr Andreas Kunzmann from 15 August to 14 November 2024.
Dr Amila Sandaruwan Ratnayake is a professor at Uva Wellassa University in Sri Lanka and Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. His primary research objectives are to understand the geological processes in sedimentary basins based on geochemical and stratigraphic interpretations and to model past and present evidence of the interactions between atmosphere, ocean, land surface and humans. Amila's project at ZMT focuses mainly on the blue carbon storage capacity of tropical mangrove wetlands on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka. He will work at ZMT from 1 September to 25 November 2024 as part of the WG Ecological Biogeochemistry, Dr Tim Jennerjahn.
Dr Alison Kim Shan Wee is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia. Her current research profile is firmly established in the biogeography, adaptation and conservation of coastal ecosystems (especially mangroves), with the primary goal of understanding their historical and future response to global change and anthropogenic threats using molecular approaches. During her time at the ZMT (19.10.24-16.01.2025) she will work on environmental DNA as a tool to track the functional recovery of mangroves. She will work in the Mangrove Ecology group with Dr Véronique Helfer.
Working Groups 
Other relevant links