Salome Buglass

Salomé is a Project Scientist at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) leading several research lines as part of the Seamount and Deep-sea Research Project, which seeks to characterize unknown deep-sea habitats of the Galapagos. She is also a National Geographic Explorer and a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia. Salome has a background in biogeography with a strong focus on aquatic ecosystems and climate change and has worked on ocean and freshwater research and conservation projects in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, Canada and Ecuador. Having lived many years in small island communities, when she moved to the Galapagos in 2016 to work as a marine ecologist, she instantly felt at home and fell in love with its marine environments. In 2017 Salome joined CDF’s Seamount and Deep-sea Research team, and since, her research is focused on investigating marine communities found in darker, deeper, and remote ocean spaces, which have largely remained a mystery to science. Currently, Salome and her team are dedicated to assessing the biodiversity of deep-water macro-fauna and flora, and their distribution across Galapagos’ Marine Reserve’s complex bathymetry.

Salomé strives to: a) stalk unsung ocean life forms, b) generate interest, love and respect for the blue planet, c) produce key information to support its protection and sustainable use, and d) connect with woke humans from all walks of life who seek and promote positive change for coastal communities and the ocean. Since 2020 Salomé has been pursuing a PhD, which she hopes will help her breakthrough the glass ceiling to become a senior researcher or professor leading research programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. As an Afro-Caribbean Latina woman, she hopes to serve a role model to youth of today, who rarely see female scientists of color heading exploratory research on the ocean’s last frontier.