Embedded Files
The International Temperate
The International Temperate
Reefs Symposium
Reefs Symposium
EMEL @ITRS 2025
EMEL @ITRS 2025
15 July 2025
Our team had the honour of presenting multiple student and staff research projects at the 14th ITRS in Brest, France.
So many excellent talks by colleagues from around the word. Great discussions and amazing food too!
UN Ocean Conference 2025
UN Ocean Conference 2025
18 June 2025
Our Research Staff Annie Chew was one of the over 2000 scientists contributing to the UNOC3 Special Event in Nice, France, sharing the results of our "large scale testing of eco-engineering solutions."
As one of two researchers from Singapore, her poster was among the 620 exhibited at the Congress, which aimed to raise attention and commitment toward the implementation of SDG14.
"Nature's Headlamps"
"Nature's Headlamps"
in the Spotlight
in the Spotlight
16 June 2025
Our new paper might be the first to describe how mangrove crabs (Parasesarma sp.) use light-focusing facial bands to communicate
— acting like natural headlamps to enhance recognition of mates and rivals.
The story has been picked up by major news outlets worldwide, and you can find the open access article here.
NUS120 Open House
NUS120 Open House
8 March 2025
NUS commemorates 120 years of excellence with a special NUS120 Open House, highlighting the university’s journey, growth, and innovations.
As part of the event, our lab — led by Annie Chew — set up an interactive booth featuring our marine biodiversity enhancement tiles, engaging with prospective students on how these innovations restore marine life and strengthen coastal resilience.
Artificial Coral Reefs at Sisters' Islands Marine Park
Artificial Coral Reefs at Sisters' Islands Marine Park
28 October 2024
After three years of rejuvenation, Sisters’ Islands Marine Park is open once again! The refurbished park now boasts a variety of new features, including three artificial coral reefs designed and installed by EMEL. Located within the small lagoon of Big Sister's Island, these artificial reefs were created by reconfiguring pre-existing marine enhancement tiles that provide high habitat complexity which boost biodiversity. Here, the EMEL team, led by Edric Wee, provides insights about the artificial reefs to the Minister for National Development, Desmond Lee, and lagoon sponsors, Singtel.
BioBoss Bommie
BioBoss Bommie
Pod Pyramid
Pod Pyramid
Urchin Towers
Urchin Towers
Coastal Protection and Flood Resilience Institute (CFI) -Singapore Inaugural Symposium
Coastal Protection and Flood Resilience Institute (CFI) -Singapore Inaugural Symposium
26 September 2024
CFI is Singapore's first Centre of Excellence focused on enhancing local skills and expertise in coastal protection and flood management research and solutions.
At its inaugural symposium, A/P Peter Todd shared about the Shoreline Protection with Integrated Nature-based Solution - Ecology ("SPINS-Eco") project, which began in 2023. This project aims to optimize the survivability and growth of corals, mangroves, and seagrass on hybrid coastlines through the use of artificial substrates and novel structures made of environmentally friendly materials such as green concrete.
Full articles covering this are available on The Straits Time and Lianhe Zaobao.
Microplastics on Corals and Seagrass: What our Research Reveals
Microplastics on Corals and Seagrass: What our Research Reveals
September 2024
Research papers by our postgraduates Clara Yong, Foo Sze Hui, and Yen Li Peng are in the news! Read about our findings on seagrass and corals as microplastic traps, as well as the use of plastic-less equipment for field sampling. Full articles available on NUSNews and Lianhe Zaobao.
Wild Conversations: Shorelines of the future
Wild Conversations: Shorelines of the future
25 July 2024
25 July 2024
Join A/P Peter Todd at Pearl's Hill Terrace, to talk about ecologically engineered strategies such as marine enhancement tiles and their future in Singapore!
Down To Earth:
Down To Earth:
Designing for Nature: Ecologically Engineering Singapore’s Coastal Defences
Designing for Nature: Ecologically Engineering Singapore’s Coastal Defences
2 July 2024
2 July 2024
A/P Peter Todd talks about designing ecologically engineered tiles along Singapore's coastlines to promote marine biodiversity.
Designing for Nature: Ecologically Engineering Singapore’s Artificial Coastal Defences
Designing for Nature: Ecologically Engineering Singapore’s Artificial Coastal Defences
8 February 2024
8 February 2024
A/P Peter Todd gives a talk at Raffles GIrls' School about designing ecologically engineered tiles along Singapore's coastlines to promote marine biodiversity, and interacted with students after the presentation.
The Year Ahead 2024:
The Year Ahead 2024:
Inclusive Spaces, Rising Costs Of Living, Our Sporting Dreams | Singapore
Inclusive Spaces, Rising Costs Of Living, Our Sporting Dreams | Singapore
We are featured again in another CNA production! This is a documentary investigating how contemporary challenges impact individuals as they grow up, work, and age in Singapore.
Catch us at 37:15 Young Singaporeans remake the Singaporean Dream!
Watch the whole production from The Year Ahead 2024.
Seas Today Ep. 6:
Seas Today Ep. 6:
Life on Our Seawalls
Life on Our Seawalls
Join our PI, A/P Peter Todd, in this podcast as he talks about the artificialisation of Singapore's coastlines with ecologically engineered tiles to enhance marine biodiversity.
19 January 2024
19 January 2024
Our very own PI Associate Professor Peter Todd and his colleague Associate Professor Li Cheng received the 2023 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award - Honour Roll (for winning three times). Watch the interview video here.
27 August 2023
27 August 2023
The Waves of Change Festival is a yearly celebration which aims to inspire affection, concern, and proactive engagement for the ocean. This year, A/P Peter Todd gave a talk about ecological engineering, strategies to enhance the ecological functioning of current coastal defences and how we can improve future coastal defence designs.
19-23 June 2023
19-23 June 2023
Organised by the National University of Singapore and National Parks Board, the 5th APCRS was a forum for reef scientists and managers to present, discuss and integrate the science and conservation of Asia-Pacific coral reef ecosystems with the theme 'Coral reef science and management in a rapidly changing world'.
Singapore serves as a prime example of the impact of coastal development on coral reefs and marine habitats due to its extensively urbanized shoreline and heavily utilized coastal waters. Additionally, it serves as a valuable case study for environmental management, exploring practices that strive to strike a balance between development and the conservation of natural resources.
This year, we were part of the organising committee, and had fun sharing our knowledge and expertise in the fields of coral reef biology, ecology, management and conservation. We look forward to the next APCRS in MALAYSIA!
Oceanfest Seminar
Oceanfest Seminar
24 May 2021
24 May 2021
A/P Peter Todd talks about urbanisation and the marine environment in this virtual seminar.
It's In Our Nature:
It's In Our Nature:
Saving Our Wildlife!
Saving Our Wildlife!
Glad to have the seawall team featured in another CNA production! This is a 2 part documentary highlighting the biodiversity of Singapore and what some tenacious frontliners are doing to save our native wildlife from extinction.
Catch us in Ep 2: It’s In Our Nature: Saving Our Wildlife!
Watch the whole production from Ep 1: It’s In Our Nature: Losing Our Biodiversity.
ADEX VIRTUAL EXPO: Byte Science (Student edition)
ADEX VIRTUAL EXPO: Byte Science (Student edition)
11 June 2020
11 June 2020
It is World Ocean Week! We are celebrating virtually this year. The Asia Dive EXpo (Singapore) has kindly invited some of our PhD candidates to talk about their work on marine biodiversity in Singapore.
These individuals have been dedicating their time to understanding the biology and ecology of important marine animals. Hopefully their work will influence the ways we can better protect Singapore's precious natural heritage.
We would like to thank ADEX for welcoming the younger generation of marine scientists and providing a platform for us to discuss our work with the masses.
Find the discussion by our #YOUNG OCEAN DEFENDER, Daisuke Taira, Jenny Fong and Samantha Lai on the re-run of the Facebook live webinar HERE.
The Islands That Made Us
The Islands That Made Us
Last July (2019), the seawall team was fortunate to participate in the filming of a CNA production that focused on the natural heritage of the islands around Singapore! We were featured as marine ecologists and introduced how our work at Pulau Hantu can help develop sustainable solutions to minimize our impact on the environment. Watch Dr Lynette Loke's interview in this inspiring production!
Full video: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/video-on-demand/islands-that-made-us
Public Seminar -
Public Seminar -
Professor Gray Williams
Professor Gray Williams
21 March 2019
21 March 2019
Prof Gray Williams is an international collaborator with the seawall project. He made a short visit to Singapore to discuss potential experiments we can conduct with HKU.
During his short stay, we were fortunate to invite him and his colleague, Prof Bayden Russell, to give a public seminar on their work in Hong Kong.
Cleaning our Singapore reefs!
Cleaning our Singapore reefs!
Our research assistant, Miss Lynette Ying, is one of the founding members of Our Singapore Reefs!
In her spare time, her team arranges dive trips for ocean-loving recreational divers to help clean up rubbish on reefs, preserving marine life and the beauty of the underwater world.
Celebrating Singapore Shores at Berlayar Creek
Celebrating Singapore Shores at Berlayar Creek
16 March 2019
16 March 2019
The year-long celebration of the International Year of the Reef (IYOR2018) has concluded, marking both its official closure and the ongoing celebration of Singapore's reefs.
EMEL's seawall team was honoured to share their work with numerous special guests at the event.
What eats seagrass?
What eats seagrass?
...Seacows!
...Seacows!
Dugongs, also known as seacows, feed exclusively on seagrass. Seagrass meadows are important not only to dugongs but the rest of the marine ecosystem as well. Georgina from World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) visits one of Singapore's largest seagrass meadow to find out more about this unique marine habitat from our local expert, Dr. Samantha Lai.
4th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium
4th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium
4-9 June 2018
4-9 June 2018
The Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium seeks to provide a forum for scientists, educators, managers, environmentalists and relevant stakeholders in the Asia Pacific region to share knowledge and experiences on all aspects of coral reef biology, ecology, management, and conservation.
This year, we joined the Singapore team and had a great time sharing our work with many people. We enjoyed our time with our friends from the Philippines and are excited to meet everyone again at the next APRCS 2022 in SINGAPORE!
The Fun Odyssea
The Fun Odyssea
17-18 March 2018
17-18 March 2018
We celebrated the International Year of the Reef (IYOR2018) with many other blue groups in this event held at Sentosa! The audience were intrigued with the many specimens and experimental materials we brought for show and tell. The kids also had a lot of fun making clay marine creatures, with the help of our craft master, Ambert Ang!
Public Seminar - Lawrence Liao
Public Seminar - Lawrence Liao
27 April 2018
27 April 2018
Dr Lawrence Liao is a regional expert on algae taxonomy. We were fortunate to have him visit us and teach most of our staff and other researchers from other projects in the techniques for algae identification.
Dr Liao also gave a seminar on some of the works he is currently involved in.
Our Grandfather Story: What is seagrass?
Our Grandfather Story: What is seagrass?
Resident seagrass girl, Samantha Lai, explores the lesser known seagrass meadows in Singapore.
TEDx Talk: Beyond the water's edge
TEDx Talk: Beyond the water's edge
Dr Eliza Heery talks about the urban seascape and some of our lab's research in Singapore.
Festival of Biodiversity
Festival of Biodiversity
27-28 May 2017
27-28 May 2017
The Festival of Biodiversity is organized by NParks and held every year to promote local biodiversity to the public. This year, we decided to try a new form of craft workshop for kids based on the concepts from our seawall research.
Kids had the chance to create their own experimental seawall enhancement tile out of recycled materials! They also got to make some pom-pom marine friends too.
Talk @ Canadian International School
Talk @ Canadian International School
18 May 2017
18 May 2017
It was amazing to see the younger generation show interest in marine science! The talk was initiated by students at the Canadian International School as part of an assignment. A/P Peter Todd spent an afternoon engaging with these enthusiastic children and sharing the lab's work with them.
Public Seminar - Louise Firth
Public Seminar - Louise Firth
14 September 2017
14 September 2017
Dr Louise Firth is an international collaborator with the seawall project. She made a short visit to Singapore, where we discussed and planned experiments that runs concurrently in Singapore and the UK.
During her short stay, we were fortunate to invite her to give a public seminar on her work in eco-engineering.
Marine Science Research and Development Programme (MSRDP) Launch
Marine Science Research and Development Programme (MSRDP) Launch
28 November 2016
28 November 2016
Our researchers set up a show and tell booth to celebrate the launch of the MSRDP and the new St John's Island National Marine Laboratory.
This event revealed many new research projects awarded to special guests that are supporting the programme.
MSRDP short films: Community Ecologist
MSRDP short films: Community Ecologist
Looking for a fun and exciting career in science? Dr Lynette Loke talks about what she enjoys most about her work and marine science.
Island Escapade 鲁滨逊岛屿日记 - EP6
Island Escapade 鲁滨逊岛屿日记 - EP6
Ambert Ang highlights the work carried out at the giant clam hatchery through a Mandarin Children's Series!
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