幸运飞艇计划

Although grew up in Johannesburg without direct access to the sea, she early developed a passion for the ocean leading her to study oceanography. Since August 2024 she has been a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen鈥檚 Department of Physics and Technology, where she is affiliated with the Marine Optics Group and , a centre of research-driven innovation funded by the Research Council of Norway.

鈥淚t was actually a postdoctoral fellow in the SFI and who is also part of the SEAS programme, H氓kon Sandven, who alerted me to the call for the award. I decided it was an ideal opportunity to apply for,鈥� says Sejal.

• SEAS, which is short for Shaping European Research Leaders for Marine Sustainability, is funded in part by the EU and was recently endorsed as an official Ocean Decade Action as part of the UN Ocean Decade (2021-2030).

As she is to depart on her second One Ocean Expedition on board the tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl, she received news that she is the winner of the 2025 French Institute Nordic Award. (More information on the award in the FACTS.)

Award covers expenses at UN Ocean Conference

鈥淚 was in my office when I received the news, just working and preparing for the cruise and this just came out of the blue. I was so happy and filled with gratitude,鈥� says Sejal, who will board the ship in Troms酶 going via Iceland鈥檚 capital Reykjavik and onwards to Nice for the One Ocean Science Congress and the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice in June.

鈥淚 had initially planned to stay on the couch of a friend and colleague and would be going straight from the cruise to staying on her couch. But now I have more comfortable accommodation whilst in Nice,鈥澛爏he says laughing.

The award, which includes support of NOK 23,000 to cover expenses in conjunction with the congress and conference will come in handy.

鈥淚 was quite stressed about spending all this time in France and not having funding for that. This worked out perfectly and I felt that things were finally aligning after a long period of stress,鈥� she says.

She already has research ties with France and one of the reasons she applied for the award was that she figured it would lead to increased possibilities for her to conduct her research.

鈥淚 was planning to process some of the samples I will collect during the cruise at my colleague鈥檚 lab - the Laboratoire d鈥橭c茅anographie de Villefranche (LOV), IMEV. Additionally, since the expedition ends in Nice with the One Ocean Science Conference and the UN Ocean Decade events, it seemed like the perfect award to apply for,鈥� she says smiling.

Sailing for science

In early 2023 she was on board the first One Ocean Expedition on the leg from Maputo in Mozambique to Cape Town in South Africa. For the second expedition, which kicked off at the close of One Ocean Week in Bergen 2025, the young South African oceanographer will experience quite different waters when she joins the European Space Agency鈥檚 Ocean Training Course for the Troms酶-Reykjavik-Nice leg. Along with lecturers from the Nansen Centre and the University of Maine, she will give lectures on board and also conduct research of her own.

鈥淚 will be collecting and analysing water samples at the stations that we stop at. Mainly I鈥檒l be analysing water constituents such as phytoplankton pigments, coloured dissolved organic material (CDOM), suspended particulate matter (SPM), and particulate organic carbon (POC), in conjunction with having instruments measuring absorption and attenuation (AC-S) and particle size distribution (LISST-200X) in an inline system,鈥� she says.

These observations will be used to validate satellite data, including hyperspectral measurements from NASA's PACE satellite, aiding in the development of algorithms and advancing understanding of oceanographic processes.聽

鈥淔rom that, we can identify the water's constituents, which will help improve satellite-based evaluations for more accurate monitoring of ocean water quality.鈥�

The FINA jury writes in its verdict:

Sejal Pramlall, PhD student in the Marine Optics Group at 幸运飞艇计划, has been selected as the Norwegian laureate among many other promising young researchers from Norwegian institutions. Her research work aims at improving the utility of ocean colour remote sensing for monitoring water quality using hyperspectral data. As Sejal noted in her application, "in an era of rapid environmental change, this research provides vital tools for monitoring marine ecosystem health, tracking climate change impacts, and supporting sustainable ocean management; all increasingly important for informed policy decisions on regional and global scales".

Sejal's ability to situate her work within broader issues of international ocean governance and sustainable ocean management was a determinant factor in the selection process, as the French Institutes in the Nordic countries' aim with FINA is to support the work of young researchers from various disciplines (this year, laureates come from the fields of physics, biology and law) who are committed to contributing positively to our society鈥檚 most pressing challenges. Sejal's ambitions for her work to "support evidence-based conservation efforts and sustainable ocean management across European and Arctic waters" was thus key in her selection for the FINA.

Her clear willingness to establish meaningful connections with French researchers at the Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV) and to contribute to the strengthening of French-Norwegian scientific cooperation was also very important.