The participation to the expedition of INACH (Chile)

On the 29th January 2013, Dr Dail Laughinghouse (University of Liège) has started a long journey that would bring him to Punta Arenas (Chile, Patagonia) and then, to Antarctica. This collaboration is allowed thanks to the cooperation between INACH (The Antarctic Chilean Institute) and BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy Office) and most of all, to the kind invitation by Dr José Retamales!!

José Retamales, director of INACH at the SCAR/COMNAP meeting in Portland

  In August, Marcelo Gonzalez (INACH) has visited us in Liège to discuss a possible collaboration. Then, in November, Annick Wilmotte (ULg) met Marcelo and Paris Lavin at the South-American Congress of Microbiology in Santos (Brazil). 

Vivian Pellizari (USP) chairing a workshop to foster the scientific collaborations between South-American countries active in Antarctica research (databases, meetings, etc)

Dail volunteered to participate to the Chilean expedition, as he has never been in Antarctica but has already field experience for sampling, though it was a bit hotter (Belize :-)).

                                               Dail Haywood Laughinghouse

Dail has studied in Brazil and the US, and since 2004, he has been working on the taxonomy and ecology of cyanobacteria and microalgae. He has presented his thesis at the University of Maryland in June 2012 and joined the team of Dr. Annick Wilmotte, at the Centre for Protein Engineering, to work on the diversity and biogeography of polar cyanobacteria as a mobility post-doc financed by the FRS-FNRS.