Keynote speaker

Dr Asha de Vos is an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator, author, pioneer of long-term blue whale research within the Northern Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka's first deep-sea explorer and aquanaut, and strong advocate for diversity and equity in marine conservation. She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Oceans Institute of the University of Western Australia and a member of the UN Secretary General’s 7-member external Scientific Advisory Board. She holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews, the University of Oxford and the University of Western Australia, but escaped academia to establish her own Sri Lankan-grown non-profit, Oceanswell - Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organisation. Asha and her work have been showcased internationally by a range of media outlets, including BBC, the New York Times, TED and National Geographic. Among her most notable and interesting accolades, Asha is the first Sri Lankan woman to have her portrait hung at Oxford University. She also has a deck on the MV Sylvia Earle cruise ship named after her. Her handwoven portrait is part of the ‘Women + Water’ exhibit at the Manitowish River Studio in the USA. She was listed on the BBC 100 Women 2018 list of most inspiring and influential women worldwide and named Lanka Monthly Digest’s Sri Lankan of the Year 2018. In 2020, Asha was awarded the inaugural Maxwell-Hanrahan award in field biology and named Scuba Diving Magazine’s Sea Hero of the Year. In 2021, she was awarded a Vanithaabimani Lifetime Achievement Award and the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. In 2023, she was named the Equity and Diversity Champion of the British Ecological Society and an Osher Fellow at the California Academy of Sciences in the USA. Asha is the author of three ocean-related books for all ages.

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