Using story-telling to imagine the complex web of relations between humans and marine life

Kelp Kulture is a monthly interdisciplinary speaker series. The team consists of researchers from the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB), Law, and Art departments at UCLA. The intention is to build interdisciplinary conversation around the invaluable kelp forest ecosystem and its intricate links to various cultures, professions, and academia. Each quarter Kelp Kulture hosts talks with speakers from different backgrounds seeking to contextualize our involvement with this habitat and its abundant resources.

Emma Akmakdjian

Artist, MFA Design | Media Arts

Emma is the designer and content creator for the Kelp Kulture speaker series. She is a mixed-media artist researching epistemologies of marine ecology and working with scientists to translate climate data into visuals.

Jess Carstens-Cass

Phd student, Braybrook Lab

Jess co-manages the Kelp Kulture speaker series. Her research focuses on the interaction between brown algal cell walls and the microbiome. The highly independent evolution of brown algal cell walls has given rise to unique cell wall components, including a type of polysaccharide (called fucoidan) which has demonstrated antibacterial activity against several human pathogens. Jess’s research aims to decipher how the antibacterial properties of this cell wall polysaccharide affect the recruitment and composition of the brown algal microbiome, and how this interaction might promote algal health.

Where the Kelp Magic begins..

Kelp Magic is the kelp research community at UCLA that includes interdisciplinary professors and students with several grant funded projects that include mapping kelp canopies, engineering climate solutions with kelp, and researching public opinion on new biotech in marine resource management.

Prof. Siobhan Braybrook

Project Lead, Primary Investigator Braybrook Lab

Siobhan Braybrook is an Associate Professor in the Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles.

Prof. Tim Malloy

Project Lead, School of Law

Timothy Malloy is a professor at the UCLA School of Law, where he holds the Frank G. Wells Endowed Chair in Environmental Law. His research focuses on risk governance and on the use of science to enhance policy. In particular, he explores how informal norms, private initiatives and formal regulation can be used to address concerns and challenges relating emerging technologies, including nanotechnology and synthetic biology.

Madeleine Siegel

Phd student, IoES, Institute of Environment and Sustainability

Madeleine conducts research on public perception and policy related to kelp and climate change in California. In collaboration with the larger research team, she studies stakeholder perspectives and public opinion on kelp forest habitat restoration, aquaculture, and marine-based carbon sequestration.

Steven Beuder

Previous Post-doc, Braybrook Lab

Steven is a co-creator of the Kelp Kulture speaker series and co-managed the talks between 2022-2023. His research focused on how climate change affects Giant Kelp at the molecular level, and aimed to develop gene-editing technology in Giant Kelp. Additionally, he oversaw undergraduate projects focused on better understanding developmental processes in Macrocystis early-life stages, including the role of actin in cell growth and division.

Maura Palacios

Professor, Biology, Mt. San Antonio College

Maura Palacios was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Scholar in the Wayne Lab at UCLA and took part in the Kelp Magic Group creating the first iteration of a speaker series with eight interdisciplinary speakers.

Prof. Sriram Narasimhan

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Prof. Narasimhan is interested in developing robot platforms and remote sensing methods to map kelp forests. Examples include remotely acquired imagery to map canopy forming kelps and acoustic sensors mounted on surface vessels to estimate biomass distribution.