Carmela Isabel Nuñez Lendo

Carmela Isabel Nuñez Lendo is a Nicaraguan-Spanish marine biologist. She holds a degree in biology with a specialization in marine biology and chemistry from the University of Valencia in Spain. She obtained a second master’s degree in aquaculture and marine resource management from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. In 2016, Nuñez Lendo joined the Smithsonian Institution in a worldwide coral conservation initiative that focuses on cryopreservation of coral genetic material and reef restoration. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Future Reefs Program at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. Nuñez Lendo started her career assessing the environmental impact of pollutants on aquatic ecosystems and marine organisms. Witnessing an astonishing coral spawning event during a reef restoration project in the Bahamas was a turning point in her life, and since that moment she has dedicated herself to specialize and acquire cutting-edge techniques for conservation and restoration of coral reefs. Nuñez Lendo expanded her education studying assisted evolution in the Philippines in a project with the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, and she is currently improving her skills in reef restoration through coral nurseries and micro-fragmentation in the Pacific.