Kevin C. K. Ma

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rhodes Univ. (2019 – present)
PhD in Oceanography, Univ. Laval (2019)
MSc in Biology, Memorial Univ. of Nfld. (2012)
BSc in Ecology and Environmental Biology, UBC (2008)

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Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University
Life Sciences Building
Barrett Complex, African Street
Grahamstown, 6139, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Email: k.ma@ru.ac.za

About

Kevin is a marine biologist with interests in larval settlement of benthic species, detection of rare species, and ascidian taxonomy. He received his BSc from the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he was mentored by Kai Chan and worked in his lab.

Kevin moved across the country to Newfoundland to pursue an MSc degree at Memorial University (MUN) under the co-supervision of Don Deibel and Cynthia McKenzie. At MUN, he described species richness and zoogeography of native and non-native ascidians in eastern Canada (Ma et al. 2017a) and investigated the population dynamics of an invasive ascidian in a subarctic harbour (Ma et al. 2017b). He also worked closely with federal and provincial government scientists and industry partners to monitor for marine invasive species and to raise awareness.

In 2012, Kevin's collaborative monitoring and research efforts resulted in the discovery of new invasive invertebrate species in the Canadian Maritimes (Moore et al. 2014, Ma et al. 2016). Subsequently, he started his PhD at Université Laval under the co-directorship of Ladd E. Johnson and Chris W. McKindsey. His doctoral studies aim to develop optimal sampling strategies for the early detection of marine invasive species by evaluating different spatial and temporal scales in the field (1 manuscript submitted, 2 manuscripts in prep.).

Kevin was previously involved in marine invasive species outreach efforts in the Canadian Arctic in 2015. In 2017, he received training in ascidian taxonomy at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, which helped him to continue documenting new records of invasive ascidians in the Canadian Maritimes (Ma et al. 2018). Also, Kevin has been involved in the organizing committees of scientific conferences (namely the 2015 Benthic Ecology Meeting and the 2018 World Conference on Marine Biodiversity), with a particular interest in coordinating social media for these events.