Robert Blasiak

Sustainable Ocean Management

Ph.D, Researcher

Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University

Robert Blasiak is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, where he focuses on the sustainable management of ocean resources, and ocean stewardship. His recent work has dealt with issues surrounding the conservation and equitable use of marine genetic resources.

Before joining SRC, Robert worked as a researcher in the Laboratory of Global Fisheries Science at the University of Tokyo and a communications officer at the United Nations University. He has previously been a senior research fellow with the Nippon Foundation NEREUS Program, as well as a visiting researcher with the University of Tokyo and the United Nations University.

He has co-led publications about the “ocean genome” and marine genetic resources for the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the United Nations Regular Process (World Ocean Assessment), and the Blue Climate Initiative.

Blasiak is a German-English translator, and is currently translating the memoirs of Dr. Franz Doflein, one of the first marine ecologists to travel to East Asia (in 1905) and conduct research on the deep-sea fauna and flora off the eastern coast of Japan.

Blasiak completed his PhD at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, supervised by Professor Nobuyuki Yagi. His PhD thesis was titled “Conservation and sustainable use of the oceans: Strategic behavior and unintended consequences”.

He received a Masters degree from Lund University (Lund University Masters in International Development) applying game theory to aspects of international cooperation in Cambodia, and a Bachelors degree from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Blasiak is a member of the Ocean and Climate Platform Scientific Committee, a member of the editorial board of the ICES Journal of Marine Science, a participant in the UN Global Compact Ocean Stewardship Coalition, a member of the Expert Review Committee for the Seafood Stewardship Index, and coordinates the scientific input to the SeaBOS initiative (Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship).

He has co-led working groups and publications on marine genetic resources for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the World Ocean Assessment and the Blue Climate Initiative. He is currently leading the FORMAS project on “The marine biotechnology industry and equitable governance of marine genetic resources” and is co-leading the SRC’s Human Ocean research theme.