Members of the Advisory Body

Last update:24 January 2025

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Body (STAB) is a 14 experts body elected by the Meeting of States Parties that provides advice to the Meeting of States Parties in technical matters related to the implementation of the 2001 Convention. It evaluates the observance of the Rules of the Annex of the Convention in all activities directed at the underwater cultural heritage. It also helps providing capacities, drafting national actions plans, and guiding States Parties in the implementation process.  

Please see the complete list of current STAB members here.

See below names and biographies of current STAB members

Robert Domzal(Poland)-Chairperson

Robert Domzal, Maritime archaeologist and historian, is directing the National Maritime Museum, Gdansk, Poland, since 2019., he obtained PhD at the University of Gdansk in 2007. From 2009 to 2014, he was Chairman of the Working Group on the Coastal Culture and Maritime Heritage of the Baltic Sea States.  From 2009 to 2015, he was a member of Executive Council of the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM), working also as a regional correspondent. He is the co-organizer of Baltic Sea Heritage Forums and speaker on many international conferences on maritime heritage protection. He also worked on the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.  Currently member of the Baltic Region Heritage Committee, Council of Museums, and ICOM in Poland.

罢辞耻蹿颈办鈥疕补尘辞耻尘鈥(础濒驳别谤颈补)-痴颈肠别-颁丑补颈谤辫别谤蝉辞苍

Toufik Hamoum is a university professor. He teaches at the Institute of Archaeology and the University of Algiers. He is a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Council (STAB) of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World's Underwater Cultural Heritage. Mr. Hamoum is also a member of the UNESCO International Committee for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage on the Skerki Banks. In addition, he is a cultural heritage expert with ICESCO and the WHC-UNESCO World Heritage Centre.  He is President of the University Habilitation Commission for the Humanities and Arts, at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

Mirta鈥疓iselda Ida Linero鈥疊aroni (Panama)-Rapporteur

Mirta is anthropologist with a specialty in Archaeology  and Ethnohistory. Magister Scientiarum in Conservation and Restoration of Monuments. Doctor in History of Architecture. Diplomate in Nautical and Naval History and is a specialist in Foresight and Strategy. 

Director of Archeology and the research program at the Panama Viejo Archaeological Site - including the curatorship of the museum and the ruins - since 2010. Editor of Canto Rodado, journal specialized in Cultural Heritage since 2014. She is a professor of Archaeology at the University of Panama and the Central University of Venezuela. 

She belongs to the International Council of Archaeology and Monuments (ICAHM) of UNESCO, ICOMOS of Panama, since 2014, on the Board for the period 2019-2022, and is part of the Network of Museums and Visitor Centers of Panama. On the scientific committee of the Ibero-American Colonial Urbanism Research Network, since 2014. 

Dolores Elkin (Argentina)鈥

Dolores Elkin is an Argentinean archaeologist (PhD 1996) with a tenure research position at the country麓s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). She is based at the National Institute of Anthropology (Ministry of Culture), where she is in charge of the Underwater Archaeology Program. She is Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, contributing to the development of the speciality both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, but she has also conducted many outreach initiatives within the sport diving community and the general public. She has been in charge of several research and management projects, most of them involving shipwrecks from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the main one being the 18th Century sloop of war HMS Swift. All those projects have taken place in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. She has more than 100 publications including books, scientific papers and book chapters, and publications for the general public. She has organized and participated in many national and international scientific meetings and is affiliated with several organizations.

Marnix Pieters鈥(Belgium)

Marnix Pieters is an archaeologist (with a degree in history and soil science), specializing during his PhD in the material living world of medieval and modern fishing societies in the North Sea. He has been part of the Flanders Heritage Agency, since 1992, first as a scientific collaborator, and from 2015 as archaeological research director. 

Marnix Pieters has been involved in numerous archaeological operations such as, between 1992 and 2005, the large-scale excavation project of a medieval fishing settlement in Walraversijde (Ostend, Belgium) that led to the opening in 2020 of the museum-site devoted to the medieval fishing folk. Since 2013, he teaches at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) a master course on coastal and maritime archaeology.

He contributed to the ratification of the 2001 Convention in 2013 by Belgium and to the elaboration of the federal laws in 2014 and 2021 for the protection of underwater cultural heritage.

Kalin Dimitrov鈥(Bulgaria)

Kalin Dimitrov is an archaeologist with scientific interest in the development of ancient societies, settlement patterns, early exchanges and sea faring along the Western Black sea coast. Holding a PhD, he is since 2016 the director of the Centre of Underwaterarchaeology of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria in Sozopol. 

Kalin Dimitrov was director of numerous underwater and terrestrial archaeological projects in Bulgaria among which are the international project 鈥淢aritime Archaeology Project (M.A.P.) Black Sea鈥 and the excavation of the sea pile dwelling sites of Ropotamo and Sozopol. Since 2010, he is a researcher at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 

Emad Khalil鈥(Egypt)

Emad Khalil is a Professor of Maritime Archaeology at the Alexandria University, Egypt, and the Director of Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center at the Alexandria Library. Professor Khalil is a UNESCO Chair-Holder in Underwater Cultural Heritage and the founding Director of the Alexandria Centre for Maritime Archaeology & Underwater Cultural Heritage. He is a member and a former President of the ICOMOS International Committee for Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH), and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Conf茅d茅ration Mondiale des Activit茅s Subaquatiques (CMAS). 

Professor Khalil is a world-renowned expert in Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage with over 25 years of experience in research and education. He has been involved in maritime and underwater archaeology since the early nineties. Since then, he has contributed to several archaeological projects in Egypt, including, the Pharos Excavation, the Sadana Island Shipwreck Excavation, the Lake Mareotis Research Project, the Northwest Coast Shipwreck Survey, the Marsa Bagoush Research Project, the Red Sea Wrecks at Risk Project, and the Umluj Shipwreck Excavation in KSA. Professor Khalil is recognized for his contributions to capacity building in aspect of underwater cultural heritage in the Arab Region.

Maili Roio (Estonia)

Since 2019, Maili Roio is an advisor on Underwater Archaeology at the Estonian National Heritage Board, where she previously held the position of Senior Inspector of Underwater Heritage from 2012 to 2019. Since 2022, she is the Chairperson of the Baltic Sea Region Working Groupe on Underwater Cultural Heritage.    
Holder of a Research master鈥檚 degree in Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage from the University of Tartu, obtained in 2007, she is involved in various projects funded by organizations such as the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, Horizon 2020, and EU鈥檚 Interreg programme Estonia-Latvia program.

Jos茅 Leonel Ziesse Alt谩n (Guatemala)

Jos茅 Leonel Ziesse Alt谩n has been involved in numerous activities, including archaeological research, conservation projects, management of cultural and natural heritage sites, and academic teaching. From 2022 to 2023, he was General Administrator of the Archaeological Park of Tayasal, Guatemala, responsible for controlling and monitoring the strategic, technical, financial and administrative activities of the park. From 2018 to 2022, he was the administrative Coordinator of the Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo national park.     
Jos茅 Leonel Ziesse Alt谩n obtained a PhD. in Archaeology from the School of History of the San Carlos University of Guatemala.

Barbara Davidde Petriaggi (Italy)

Barbara Davidde Petriaggi is Director of the Soprintendenza nazionale per il patrimonio culturale subacqueo - National Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage -Ministry of Culture (MiC -Italy) since the half of December 2020.  Since February 2021 she is also Director ad interim of the Soprintendenza per i beni archeologici artisti e storici per le province di Brindisi e Lecce (Lecce). (MiC- Italy).

Since 2001 she is visiting professor at the Roma Tre University, where she teaches underwater archaeology. Since 2001, she focused her research activities on the in situ restoration of underwater cultural heritage as a researcher in the Restoring Underwater Project. Since July 2011 she is designer and scientific coordinator of several national and international projects for the development of technologies for underwater archaeological research and  for the conservation and enhancement of underwater cultural heritage.

Mar铆a Helena Barba Meinecke鈥(Mexico)

Helena Barba Meinecke is a Mexican archaeologist who graduated from the National School of Anthropology and History of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and from the Master in Nautical and Submarine Archaeology of the International School of Doctorate in Marine Studies (EIDEMAR), University of Cadiz (UCA), Spain. She is Research Professor C (INAH).

She was Head of the Projects Department of the National Coordination of Archaeology of INAH between 1994 and 2001. She participated as Field Chief in several archaeological projects developed in the state of Campeche, M茅xico.

Since 2003 she is a researcher in charge of the Office of Underwater Archaeology of the Yucatan Peninsula of the sub-direction of Underwater Archaeology (SAS) of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico. Its mission is the protection, conservation, research, dissemination, and enhancement of underwater cultural heritage.

Oumar Badiane (Senegal)

Oumar Badiane is the Artistic and Cooperation Director of the Grand Th茅芒tre national (Dakar, Senegal). From 2020 to 2022 he was the Chief of Intangible Heritage section in the Ministry of Culture, where he notably developed the scientific and cultural project of the division and shared his expertise with project holders. Prior to his current position,  he was the Director of Ziguinchor and Kolda cultural regional centre from 2015 to 2019. 

Lesa La Grange鈥(South Africa)

Lesa la Grange is the archaeologist in charge of the South African Heritage Resources Agency鈥檚 Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage (MUCH) unit, which is legally mandated with coordination of the management of underwater cultural heritage resources in South Africa, including their identification, regulation, and promotion. She has an MPhil in archaeology from the University of Cape Town (2015), a commercial diving license, certificate in Heritage Resources Management, and has been working in archaeological heritage resources management for over 10 years. Lesa has worked with various institutions as a lecturer, consultant, and archaeological collections assistant, and was elected to the STAB in 2019. Her current research focus is on the management of tidal fish traps, digital techniques for recording heritage sites and objects, and policy development to ensure effective regulatory frameworks for MUCH protection.

Ahmed Gadhoum (Tunisia)

Ahmed Gadhoum is a researcher in Underwater Archaeology at the National Institute of Heritage in Tunis, Tunisia. He is also an associated researcher at the Camille Jullian Centre, in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), in Aix-en-Provence, France. Respectively from 2011 and 2010 to date. Since 2014, he is the administrative and scientific manager of the archaeological sites of the Governorate of Sousse, located in the eastern coast of Tunisia. Finally, Ahmed Gadhoum has been involved in diverse archaeological operations in Tunisia, Italy, France, and Malta, as well as numerous projects to raise awareness and protect underwater cultural heritage.

Former members

  • Emmanuel Adeniyi Odekanyin (Nigeria)
  • Mr Abdoul Aziz Guiss茅 (Senegal)
  • Abner Al Berda鈥(Panama) 
  • Francisco Alves (Portugal) 
  • Augustus Babajide Ajibola (Nigeria) 
  • Ouafa Ben Slimane (Tunisia)
  • Adote Blim Blivi (Togo) 
  • Hugo Eliecer Bonilla Mendoza (Panama) 
  • Milton Eric Branford (Saint Lucia) 
  • Constantin Chera (Romania) 
  • Pilar Luna Erreguerena (Mexico) 
  • Carmen Garc铆a Rivera (Spain) 
  • Andrej Gaspari (Slovenia)
  • 础锄锄别诲颈苍别&苍产蝉辫;碍补谤谤补鈥(惭辞谤辞肠肠辞)&苍产蝉辫;
  • Michel L'Hour鈥(France) 
  • Jasen Mesic (Croatia) 
  • Xavier Nieto Prieto (Spain) 
  • Serhiy Oleksandrovych Voronov (Ukraine) 
  • Ovidio Juan Ortega Pereyra (Cuba) 
  • Kalin Stoynev Porozhnov (Bulgaria) 
  • Seyed Hossein Sadat Meidani (Islamic Republic of Iran) 
  • Auron Tare (Albania)
  • Hossein Tofighian (Islamic Republic of Iran) 
  • 鈥疉苍苍补濒颈蝉补&苍产蝉辫;窜补谤补迟迟颈苍颈&苍产蝉辫;(滨迟补濒测)&苍产蝉辫;
  • 鈥疺濒补诲补蝉&苍产蝉辫;窜耻濒办耻蝉&苍产蝉辫;(尝颈迟丑耻补苍颈补)&苍产蝉辫;