Organizing Committee

The committee is comprised of Chairperson Oscar Alvarez (Uninorte), Andrés Fernando Osorio Arias (CEMarin), Mateo Roldan Carvajal (CEMarin), PAMEC Board Members Bruce Cameron and Dana Morin and the co-chairs of the Science & Technical Committee, Lysel Garavelli and Gabriel Garcia Medina.

Dr. Oscar Alvarez, Chair of PAMEC 2024 Organizing Committee

Oscar Alvarez is Civil Engineer, M.Eng. in Water Resources, and Ph.D. in Marine Sciences. He is currently associate professor in coastal physical oceanographer at the Department of Physics and Geosciences at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia. Oscar is senior researcher of the national system of science, technology, and innovation of Colombia. His main field of work is the analysis of resources, feasibility of implementation, and possible environmental impacts of marine energies, with special focus on Salinity Gradient Energy. He also investigates on estuarine hydrodynamics from both field data and modelling. The delta of the Magdalena River, discharging into the Caribbean Sea in Barranquilla, has been the most important lab for his research group to approach estuarine processes.

Dr. Andrés Fernando Osorio Arias

Andrés F. Osorio is a professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and he is the director of OCEANICOS research group. He is also the director of Center of Excellence in Marine Science – CEMarin (www.cemarin.org). He has experience in management of ocean and coastal zones (GZOC), renewable marine energies, numerical modelling for reanalysis, and forecasting and designing solutions for coasts and oceans engineering.

He has been involved in international projects such as: CoastView (vigilance of coastal systems in European countries), software development of SMC (Coastal Modelling System), and a technological strategy for climate change made for Colombia’s Environmental and Sustainable Development and UNEP-Riso. His experience as professor, international researcher, and consultant places him as a part of the international experts in Coastal Engineering, Marine Energy and GZOC in Central and South America.

Andres is the past Chair of Technical Committee & Representative of South America on the board of directors of PAMEC.

M. Eng. Mateo Roldan Carvajal

Mateo Roldan Carvajal is a Chemical Engineer and M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering, currently working as a researcher in marine energy at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, mainly on Salinity Gradient Energy deployments. He also performs as a professional in the Scientific Projects department at the Center of Excellence in Marine Science – CEMarin (www.cemarin.org), focusing on the sustainable use of ocean resources.

He is actively involved in Colombian national and international networking to prompt marine energy, seawater desalination, and H2 projects. From 2020 to 2022, he was the Colombian liaison for the Pan-American Ocean Energy Students network (POES).

Bruce Cameron, PAMEC President & Co-founder

Bruce is Principal Consultant with Envigour Policy Consulting Inc., working on strategic energy policy projects in the realms of electricity, efficiency, distributed electricity technologies and markets, energy data and information as well as energy economic development initiatives, with a focus on tidal.

Until his retirement in 2016, he was the Executive Director of Electricity, Renewables and Efficiency with the Nova Scotia Department of Energy. In this role he led a team that helped develop Nova Scotia’s energy innovation, regulatory, and research agenda for marine renewables. He co-organizes PAMEC events and workshops.

Dana is active in the development of the marine renewable energy sector through involvement in industry associations including Marine Renewables Canada and the Pan American Marine Energy Conference Association, a non-profit organization created to bring together researchers, industry and government involved in marine renewable energy in the Americas (including the Caribbean) by means of the bi-annual Pan-American Marine Energy Conference (PAMEC).

He has been involved in numerous sector strategies, research and development related to tidal energy including the Canadian Marine Renewable Energy Technology Roadmap, The Bay of Fundy Strategic Environmental Assessment, The Value Proposition for Tidal Energy Development (OERA), the Fundy Energy Research Network SocioEconomic Scoping Study, Southwest Nova Scotia Tidal Energy Resource Assessment, Mi’kmaq Ecological Knowledge Study for the Bay of Fundy and the Nova Scotia Marine Renewable Energy Strategy.

Dana is the past Chair of the Fundy Energy Research Network Socio Economic Committee and Past Chair of Marine Renewables Canada (MRC).

Dr. Lysel Garavelli owns a Ph.D. in biological oceanography and is a Research Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, USA. Her research focuses on the effects of anthropogenic activities on the marine environment. Particularly, Dr. Garavelli works across several scientific disciplines to determine the implications of marine renewable energy and offshore wind development on marine resources. Dr. Garavelli is part of OES-Environmental – an international project on the environmental effects of marine renewable energy development that shares environmental effects information to benefit from progress made around the world, under the International Energy Agency Ocean Energy Systems. She also plays a lead role in several projects aiming at identifying the opportunities for marine renewable energy to power aquaculture.

Photo Credit: Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Gabriel García Medina is a senior coastal engineer at Mott MacDonald. He has a PhD in Coastal and Ocean Engineering and is a registered professional civil engineer in Washington, USA. His work experience spans academia, national laboratory, and industry. His research topics include wave energy resource characterization, wind energy, wind-wave interaction, coastal erosion, and coastal circulation. He is a subject matter expert on wave resource assessments serving on the International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 114.