Andreia Braga-Henriques is a deep-sea explorer, benthic ecologist and marine & fisheries biologist from MARE - Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (Madeira/ARDITI). She holds a PhD in Ocean Sciences from the University of the Azores and a Master’s degree in Applied Ecology from the University of Porto. Her work mainly focuses on observing biodiversity and mapping deep-sea environments (e.g. submarine canyons, seamounts, ridges) using marine robotic systems (e.g. ROVs, manned submersibles and drop-down cameras).

Andreia is also Associate curator of the Natural History Museum of Funchal (Madeira, MMF), studying mesophotic and deep-sea corals, Invited member of the Scientific Committee of the Deep Madeira project (Deep-ML), Chair of the ICES Working Group on Integrated Assessment of the Azores (WGIAZOR, appointment 2023-2025), Member of the ICES Working Group on Deep-water Ecology (WGDEC) that deals with the biology and conservation of deep-sea habitats in the North Atlantic, and Member of the Regional Scientific Research Committee for the UN-endorsed Challenger 150 programme.

For the past 15 years, she has belonged to the expert panel on coral taxonomy / OTUs of the Coral ID Workshop led by the University of Plymouth (IFREMER, NOAA and others) and has participated in several international scientific expeditions in the North Atlantic. Andreia had a leading role in two key exploratory campaigns aiming to study deep-sea habitats in Madeira making use of the ROV LUSO of the Mission Structure for the Extension of the Continental Shelf (EMEPC) in 2018 (Oceanic Observatory of Madeira/ARDITI) and secondly with the HOV LULA1000 of the Rebikoff-Niggeler Foundation in 2019 (Regional Government of Madeira).

While collaborating with a multidisciplinary consortium on microbial bioprospecting led by CIIMAR/ University of Porto, Andreia and her partners are about to become patent inventors (patent submitted to the Portuguese National Institute of Industrial Property). She is also a permanent staff of the Regional Secretariat for the Sea and Fisheries of the Government of the Azores.

Andreia will be presenting 'Meet the remarkable deep-sea ecosystems of Madeira' at the MAD-Deep symposium.