Dr. Laurie C. Hofmann
Dr. Laurie C. Hofmann is a marine biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) with 15 years of experience in seaweed ecophysiology and cultivation.. Her research interests include innovative uses of macroalgae, growth and optimization of sea vegetables, the development of sustainable macroalgae aquaculture, anthropogenic impacts on macroalgae, and calcification in macroalgae. She is currently a member of the Eklipse Expert Working Group on Macroalgae Cultivation and editing special topics on Coralline Algae and Scaling-Up Macroalgae Cultivation. She is leading the strain selection, optimization, selective breeding, and scaling-up of land-based cultivation of Ulva spp. for the development of food packaging within the Mak-Pak and Mak-Pak Scale-Up projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The project is a collaboration between the AWI, the University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven, Nordsee GmbH, ROVAL GmbH, Hengstenberg GmbH, and Pulp-Tec GmbH. She is also leading a new initiative (SeaStrains) funded by the Safe Seaweed Coalition to develop a European-wide strategy for safeguarding seaweed genetic resources to ensure food security and to protect biodiversity.