Masao is a senior scientist in the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) of Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) where his managerial role is as a Head of the 3^rd Laboratory of Department of Oceanography and Geochemistry, which has a long history of ocean carbon cycle studies.Growing up in 1960s and 1970s in Japan, he used to be a boy who loved to commune with nature, and increasing environmental problems related to the country’s rapid economic growth were wringing his heart. A chemist by training, studying kinetics and dynamics of chemical reactions on metal ions in solution, Masao started his career as a sea-going oceanographer in late 1980s when international projects JGOFS and WOCE were launched. Masao has moved into developing and using automated instruments for seawater CO₂ system measurements and studying ocean carbon cycle and biogeochemistry based on shipboard observations. As one of the most senior scientists at MRI-JMA, Masao with his research group runs an oceanographic and marine meteorological observation network, collects data on national to global scales, and develops data information products for the benefit of management, decision and policy makers. His main regions of interest are the western North Pacific and the western equatorial Pacific, with occasional detour to the Southern Ocean and the Arctic.

Over the years, Masao’s work at the Oceanography and Geochemistry Research Department lead to development of several methods for measurements and data analysis, as well as construction of numerical models to clarify and support the prediction of oceanic phenomena. Over the past couple of decades many of these developments found its way to the main stream of the global community. Masao played a pivotal role leading the Japanese community and at the same time connecting local developments with efforts worldwide.

Masao has served as IOCCP SSG member for the past 6 years (2011-2016) in which role he heavily influenced the processes related to projects such as SOCAT (Pacific Group), GLODAP, GO-SHIP (Executive Group), RECCAP (chapter leader) and other. He has been an active member of the PICES Section on Carbon and Climate since 2008, and IMBER SSC member since 2015. Masao also has great scientific and programmatic understanding of issues related to deoxygenation, nutrients cycling, ocean acidification and marine pollution. Since 2017, Masao has been leading IOCCP as a co-Chair.

Kim is a scientist with NIWA in New Zealand, with a focus on marine carbon chemistry.  As part of the Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions group, she is responsible for surface ocean carbon programmes including the Munida Time Series, a long-running transect of ocean carbon measurements off the coast of New Zealand, and the open ocean carbon sink quantification project, using the RV Tangaroa .  She is a part of a multi-disciplinary team working on coastal ocean acidification in New Zealand, and has recently set up a coastal ocean acidification observing network.  Kim works at the collaborative Research Centre for Oceanography, located at the University of Otago, and was part of the team that was awarded the Prime Minister’s Science Prize in 2011. Kim is one of the leaders of the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas project, which means that she is involved in all global activities related to utilizing the surface ocean carbon data and knows the needs and challenges of that community first hand.

Siv is a Senior Researcher at the Uni Research Climate in Bergen, Norway. This multidisciplinary Institute, funded by Norwegian Research Council brings together around 60 international scientists to co-investigate past, current and future climate. Siv's background is from the University of Bergen with both Master's (2007) and PhD (2011) in chemical oceanographyy from UiB. Both, her education and work experience after completing the doctorate has been focused mainly on the observational side of biogeochemical research. She thus has complex knowledge of the inorganic carbon cycle, especially in the ocean. This includes all aspects of the information cycle, starting from data collection (several weeks at sea) and quality control of observations (she is the sole data quality controller for Norwegian data in SOCAT), to data analysis and the production of global syntheses and data products such as GLODAPv2 and SOCAT.

The past three years Siv has been an instrumental part of the team of scientists developing GLODAPv2. Her deep understanding of issues related to all aspects of creating such a synthetic data product promises an invaluable input to IOCCP efforts aimed at expanding the portfolio of global, quality controlled synthetic data sets to ocean acidification, nutrients, nitrous oxide and in the future other biogeochemical Essential Ocean Variables.

For almost two years (2012-2013) Siv has also worked very closely with a major group of biogeochemical modelers at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, where at the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics led by Prof. Nikolas Gruber, she worked on understanding observational needs of today's coupled climate - earth system models. Siv currently also works closely with the modelling group responsible for the biogeochemical part of the Norwegian Earth System model (NorESM). Being involved in modelling work allowsed her to gain a much wider perspective on ocean carbon and biogeochemistry observations. She is actively involved in work aimed at developing an optimal observing system for marine biogeochemistry, allowing us to resolve complex feedback loops between individual parameters and enhancing our understanding of processes with economic constraints included during the design phase.

Finally, Siv is a recognized and valued community member. From being a chief scientist on research cruises, through being SOLAS Norway representative and Norwegian Argo representative to publishing an ocean carbon / climate related blog (Norwegian only) she has shown the ability and willingness to coordinate and communicate her research field. We would like to utilize these skills in the context of IOCCP activities.

Rik is an oceanographer at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory of NOAA in Miami FL, USA.  He studies the oceanic inorganic carbon cycle with a focus on the anthropogenic perturbation thereof.  He has done extensive research on the transfer of carbon dioxide across the air-water interface and he authored and co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewd publications.  His research portfolio is comprised of several sustained observations projects including:

- Measurements of partial pressure of CO₂ and several auxiliary parameters from ships of opportunity.  He leads the effort that involves PI’s from four different institutions and 14 ships of opportunity, making it the largest consolidated effort in the world. The focus is on characterization surface water CO₂ levels and sea-air CO₂ fluxes.

- GO-SHIP repeat hydrography that detects changes in anthropogenic CO₂ in the ocean and natural and climate induced variability on decadal time scales by repeat occupations of global ocean transects.  Rik co-chairs the GO-SHIP panel with responsibilities for marine biogeochemistry observations.

- Coastal ocean acidification monitoring where his team utilizes moorings, ships of opportunity, and research cruises to characterize the ocean acidification trends along the east coast of the USA.

Dr Véronique Camille Garçon is a Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Senior Scientist at the Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (LEGOS). She graduated from University of Paris VII in Environmental Sciences (Energy and Pollutions) in 1981 and then became a post-doc fellow at MIT (Cambridge, USA) from 1982 to 1985. Recruited as an Early Career scientist at CNRS in 1985, she worked at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris then moved down to Toulouse with a sabbatical stay at Princeton University in 1995-1996. Her research themes within the group SYSCO2 for Complex Coupled Systems at LEGOS aim towards understanding and quantifying processes governing fluxes of carbon, oxygen and associated biogeochemical elements in the ocean, using in situ tracers observations, remotely-sensed data, coupled physical biogeochemical modeling and data assimilation technics. She is also deeply involved in oceanic biogeochemical climatic monitoring via electrochemical sensors development.

To date, Véronique has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in highly cited journals, as well as five book chapters and numerous communications in so called grey literature. Throughout her successful scientific career, Véronique served on several national regional and international committees, actively contributing to development and implementation of activities furthering the coherence of marine biogeochemistry observations and modelling. Her enthusiastic and pro-active engagement in coordination was specifically relevant when she took on many major roles, including her 10 years service for Scientific Committee of the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) project, of which she was the Chair until the end of 2017.

Björn is a postdoc fellow at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany and a Scientific Coordinator of GEOMAR’s Cape Verde Ocean Observatory. From the very beginning of his doctoral degree he focused on combining autonomous biogeochemical sensors placed on a variety of mobile or fixed-point platforms with classical shipborne time-series observations in the eastern tropical North Atlantic. His most valuable expertise, from IOCCP’s perspective, lies in his experience in integrating these platforms into one local observing system and hence thoughtfully improving the spatio-temporal observing coverage – an approach which allows for deeper understanding of the processes triggering biogeochemical variabilities under investigation.

His scientific motivation for sensor and platform development and sustaining long-term observations lies mainly in carbon, oxygen and nitrogen cycles and specifically in investigating CO₂/O₂ air-sea gas exchange in the eastern tropical North Atlantic and examining the impact of mesoscale eddies on carbon and nitrogen cycling in the same region.

Besides classical ship-based operations as the backbone of time series observations at CVOO, Björn utilizes homogenous sensor packages on a set of mobile platforms including profiling floats, Wave Glider and underwater winch/profiler systems. As each platform has its own requirements on pay-loaded sensors and thereby making data processing more complicated he works towards a more uniform data processing protocols for existing sensor technologies. This endeavor would be highly beneficial to the global community and IOCCP could play an important role in homogenizing approaches of a very scattered and often disconnected time-series community.

Furthermore, based on his experience in establishing time series observations in a developing country, Björn is aware of the challenges and difficulties local partners are facing to operate and maintain high quality time series observations. Better connecting these national time series efforts from developing countries with the international research community is an endeavor he wants to push forward.

Björn participated in and cooperated with several national and international research projects (SOPRAN, CarboChange, FixO3, OCB, Eddy-Hunt) which makes him a recognized partner in the community and gives him the essential knowledge on the personal and institutional structure of the community.

Richard is a Senior Scientist at the NOAA-PMEL in Seattle. He also holds an affiliate full professor faculty position at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. He has authored more than 225 refereed research publications, and received more than 30 awards (including Department of Commerce Gold Award in 2006 and Heinz Environmental Award in 2010) for his extraordinary efforts in identifying ocean acidity as an existing major challenge to the health of the ocean’s food web. Logging more than 1,000 days at sea on over 50 scientific expeditions, Richard has played a leading role in examining the extent and impact of ocean acidification in situ. Over the years he has strongly advocated the need for international coordination of ocean acidification observations so that individual national efforts result in a global monitoring network. His appointment is particularly timely, given that IOCCP has agreed to co-coordinate the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network, the very idea proposed in the community white paper (led by Richard) at the OceanObs’09 Conference.

Cristian is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the Universidad of Concepcion (UC) in Chile, where he also serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of Multiple-Drivers on Marine Socio-Ecological Systems (MUSELS). Since 2009 he has led a number of ocean acidification-related scientific programs in Chile and has been involved in the formation and is now Co-Chair of the Latin-American Ocean Acidification Network (LAOCA). Cristian is strongly connected with the international community and serves as a member of an Executive Council of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network, (GOA-ON).

His research interests are focused in the area of biological oceanography and carbon biogeochemical cycles. He has carried out pioneering studies in South America that associate the observational carbonate system information with laboratory experiments on micro- and mesocosm set-ups under multiples stressors (e.g. pCO₂, temperature, and others). He's been also a leading PI in the Millennium Institute of Oceanography, focused mostly in the area of inorganic carbon chemistry in oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) and open ocean waters. His laboratory is completely equipped for high-quality measurements of pH, total alkalinity, and dissolved organic (DOC) and inorganic carbon (DIC) as well as a number of autonomous biogeochemical sensors (SeaFET^TM). As such this lab constitutes a reference laboratory at national level. He has authored more than 50 research publications dealing with carbon fluxes and carbon cycling in coastal waters. In the framework of IOCCP activities, Cristian will support the connection between local (e.g. LAOCA) and global (GOA-ON and IOCCP) programs, as well as data management in South America for the production of global syntheses and data products. Finally, Cristian will give us the essential knowledge on the personal and institutional structure of the Latin American community working on Ocean Acidification issues.

Michio is a senior scientist at the Geochemical Research Department, Meteorological Research Institute, Japan since 1995. He works in the filed of chemical oceanography, reference materials of nutrients in seawater, changes of nutrients and biogeochemical parameters in shallow and deep oceans. He organized three international inter-laboratory comparison studies of reference materials of nutrients in seawater in 2003, 2006 and 2008 and also held several workshops related to chemical reference materials in ocean science. Through his roles in various international projects Michio coordinates international collaboration to establish global comparability and traceability of the nutrient data in the world oceans.

Benjamin's career evolved around data and information management for marine carbon data with the main focus in making observational data available for long-term use within the ICSU World Data System. He also developed special interest in creating global data synthesis products through networking between research infrastructures and national and world data centers. For more information go to http://www.socat.info and Benjamin's profile on the UiB's website

Doug is a Principal Scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK, and holds an Honorary Assistant Professorship at the University of Southampton. A geochemist by training, initially working on redox speciation of elements Dr Connelly has moved into developing and using marine sensors to determine important biogeochemical tracers. He is involved in the development and application of a variety of sensor technologies to address global biogeochemical and societal questions.

Applying these sensors to marine systems as diverse as cold-seeps, hydrothermal vents, and reducing lochs, Doug has worked in all of the worlds Oceans. He coordinated a Marie Curie ITN (http://www.eu-sensenet.net) aimed at training a cohort of PhD students to develop a number of novel sensor technologies. He is also the Coordinator of an ambitious EC project SenseOCEAN (http://www.senseocean.eu) to develop a number of near-market new marine sensors, which involves collaboration with academics, engineers and a number of SME’s across Europe. He also coordinates a recently funded large EU project focused on questions associated with the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a technique to mitigate anthropogenic climate change, and the development of monitoring procedures for CCS in marine environments, STEMM-CCS (www.stemm-ccs.eu). This work involves collaboration with the research community using competitively won research funding, and with commercial organisations in the oil and gas sector and applied marine engineering companies.

Doug manages a large laboratory facility with a suite of sensors and instruments valued in excess of US$ 1 million and supervises numerous technical staff and a number of PhD students investigating a range of more focused studies such as the role of organic complexes in the stabilization of iron in the marine environment, through to studies of the role of a warming Arctic in the release of geologically stored methane.

The field of sensor development directed towards carbon system measurements is increasing year by year, commitments by national and international agencies to fund this work demonstrates the importance of technology developments in ocean observing. As Doug says himself: "This is an exciting time to be working at the cutting edge of the field and my involvement in the IOCCP is personally rewarding as I want to highlight the new developments which are the future off-the-shelf sensors for wider use."  

A key recommendation from the OceanObs'09 Conference held in Venice in September 2009 was for international integration and coordination of interdisciplinary ocean observations. Based on impressive agreement among the many groups present and their strong desire to work collectively, the sponsors commissioned a Task Team to develop an Integrated Framework for Sustained Ocean Observing (hereafter referred to as the FOO). The FOO was published in May 2012 and the implementation process started shortly after.

As the community is gearing up for the forthcoming OceanObs'19 Conference, there is a set of EOVs spanning all three disciplinary panels already established (www.goosocean.org/eov). An overview article documenting the multi-stage process of selecting the final list of EOVs is currently being drafted by the GOOS Expert Panels. Moreover, strong efforts to harmonize the work of three panels have been made to ensure that the vision of a truly multidisciplinary GOOS is gradually being realized.

Maciej has been with the IOCCP since the beginning of 2011, first as a Deputy Director and starting October 2012 as a Director. Prior to taking on international research management Maciej worked in the UK, France and Japan with his research evolving around marine carbon cycling and surface ocean - lower atmosphere carbon fluxes. Alongside conducting field campaigns he developed strong expertize in basin-wide to global mapping of investigated parameters using neural statistics, self-organizing maps and other computational methods.

Artur holds a B.Sc. in Geosciences & Astrophysics from Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany (2006) and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Maine in Orono, Maine, USA (2011). He took advantage of this transdisciplinary education to explore innovative approaches to combining multi-platform ocean observations with ecosystem model results while contributing to numerous national and international, regional and global projects. His scientific interests and contributions range from cold-water coral biology and trace metal biogeochemistry, through ecosystem modeling, to the development of decision-support tools for marine resource management. As an oceanographer he gained a broad perspective on a critical issue of data collection and synthesis, which often hinders the development of reliable biogeochemical and ecosystem model projections needed to provide scientific advice to local, regional and global ocean management – a perspective lacking so far from the IOCCP Project Office.

In his most recent employment as a researcher at the National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Aqua), Copenhagen, Denmark (2012-2015), Artur gained experience in coordinating international and cross-sector data synthesis and ecosystem modeling efforts (EU VECTORS project) or designing decision-support tools (EU EURO-BASIN project for the North Atlantic). He has also been providing scientific advice to working groups of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).