Dr. Louisa Shohini Ponnampalam

Dr. Louisa Shobhini Ponnampalam is a Malaysian cetacean (whales, dolphins, porpoises) ecologist who began her education in marine science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hawaii. She then went on to pursue her Ph.D. on a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship at the University Marine Biological Station in Millport, Scotland, researching small dolphins in the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Her research work on cetaceans has also taken her to the Bering Sea, across the North Pacific Ocean, the Red Sea, South China Sea, Sulu-Sulawesi Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, and more recently, the waters around the Langkawi Archipelago.Her true passion lies in increasing the scientific knowledge of marine mammals in Malaysia and to advocate for a greater awareness on marine mammal conservation among the Malaysian public, which resulted in the founding of Malaysia’s first NGO that is solely dedicated to the research and conservation of marine mammals, The MareCet Research Organization, in January 2012.

She also hopes to groom homegrown researchers who will be the next generation of ambassadors for the conservation of marine mammals and the marine environment in Malaysia through hands-on participation in MareCet’s efforts. In 2010, with support from various international conservation grants, Dr Louisa launched the Langkawi Dolphin Research Project (LDR), which strives to study the detailed ecology of cetaceans in the Archipelago, for the purposes of conservation and management. The project is ongoing and has garnered much public support, both from the local Langkawi community as well as at the national level. In her free time, she loves being.