Seafarers International Research Centre Nippon Foundation Scholarship 2005

SIRC, the Seafarers International Research Centre, is a constituent centre of the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences. At this institution The Nippon Foundation has established a PhD programme under which participants study maritime-related social science. During their studies students are given training in social science research methods and required to write a thesis of up to 80,000 words. The purpose of the programme is to create an international network of social scientists studying the lives of seafarers.

	Mohab Abou-Elkawam
Country of Citizenship	Egypt
Major Field of Study	Mohab's research focuses on the link between seafarers and the Marine Environment, how they perceive & comply with conventions and legislations relating to preservation and protection of the marine and coastal environments. He plans to investigate this subject on three levels namely, the governing bodies, shipping companies and seafarers on board tankers trading worldwide.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Mohab has a 15 year career at sea on various ranks from 3rd,Mate to Master Mariner, since 1999 he is a member of the teaching staff at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Egypt.
Other	Mohab has been awarded a Master of Science Degree from the "World Maritime University" in Sweden (2003) specialized in "Maritime Safety and Environmental Protection". He Published papers relating to oil pollution prevention and combating in various journals and conference proceedings.

	Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III
Country of Citizenship	Philippines
Major Field of Study	Don's research interests are international health and development, HIV/AIDS, maritime health, medical sociology, and reproductive health and sexuality. His fellowship research will focus on the interaction, dynamics and identities of seafarer-sex worker interactions in the context of HIV infection.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Don graduated with a BSc Psychology (cum laude) and Doctor of Medicine from the University of the Philippines. He has a Master of Public Health (International Health and Development) from the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has worked as an AIDS Program Manager for the EU, a health research specialist for the Philippine Government, health researcher and lecturer in Philippine universities, aside from being a physician. He has been a health adviser to the Philippine Seafarers Assistance Program and the National Maritime Polytechnic of the Philippines. He is co-author of the International Medical Guide for Ships of the WHO.
Other	Sports, travel and science are Don's hobbies. He is a licensed scuba diver and skydiver. He once had a parachute failure forcing him to open his reserve. Don is a travel bug and writes a travel column for a magazine. He has slept in airports thrice, missed flights twice and lost a luggage once. Don is an annual judge at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (USA) for a number of years now. He is a member of three international honour societies and the World Academy of Young Scientists. In 2005, he was a finalist at the World Science Forum.

	Shahriar Mazhari
Country of Citizenship	Islamic Republic of Iran
Major Field of Study	Shahriar's research area lie in field of Labour Market, specifically looking at the Cross-National Study of Social Determinants of the Global Shipping Labour Market.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Shahriar completed an MSc programme in Maritime Education and Training - Nautical (MET-N) at World Maritime University (WMU), Malmo, Sweden, in 1993. He was then involved with the implementation of the Safety and Quality Management System (SQMS) in Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), in capacities of training executive, Auditor and Lead Auditor. His role changed within the company as a result of the urgent need to implement the STCW Code; he became the STCW-95 Project Manager within the company's Training Department.
Other	Shahriar Mazhari 40, was born in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. He graduated from Cha-Bahar College of Nautical Studies with an honours degree (BSc in Nautical Studies), 1987. Upon receiving his certificate of competency from Ports and Shipping Organization (PSO) Iran, he commenced his sea career serving onboard the National Iranian Merchant fleet, with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL). In 1991, he decided to upgrade his academic studies by joining the World Maritime University (WMU). In 1999, upon completing the relevant courses in Hogere Zeevaartschool, Antwerp, Belgium, he obtained a Class I Certificate of Competency and became a Captain. He has recently started an MPhil/PhD programme at the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC) at Cardiff University, Wales.

	Momoko Motohashi
Country of Citizenship	Kyoto, Japan
Major Field of Study	Momoko's research interests lie in the women seafarers and their identities, especially its social impact and reflectivity.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	In September 2005, Momoko completed her one-year onboard training as a deck cadet just after the graduation from the Faculty of Maritime Sciences, Kobe University, Japan with an honours degree in Maritime Sciences. She also has various unique work experiences inside and outside Japan before starting her first degree. Her participation in the 9th 'Ship for World Youth' programme (1997) sponsored by Japanese government dramatically inspired her and changed her vision of the world as the ocean bonding all the countries together. She has worked at several major Japanese companies and organizations of trading, manufacturing, banking, social welfare and international aid as well as the voluntary activities in the Department of Conservation of New Zealand (1998), Kyoto International Youth Exchange Organization and Japanese government as a national leader of the 13th 'Ship for World YouthW' programme (2000). Then, she started her first degree in Kobe as a mature student. Her strong belief in the importance of social science research in maritime sciences brought her to the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC) at Cardiff University.
Other	Momoko is soon going to get a certification of the third mate as a deck officer. She has several academic activities, including the participation in the International Association of Maritime Universities Student Program (IAMUS) 2002 in USA and 2003 in Egypt and she also presented her paper in the IAMUS 2004 in Australia. In Feb-Mar 2003, she completed the internship at the Japanese Shipowners' Association in London and attended several sub-committees of IMO. When she was a freshperson in Kobe University, she won a prize in the 5th International Cooperation-related Thesis Contest for University Students, sponsored by JICA (The title: International cooperation against the pirates and armed robbery in southeast Asia). Another encouraging award was given to her traditional Ryukyu-style Japanese dance performance at the Ryukyu Traditional Performing Arts Competition in Okinawa, 2002.