Principal Scientist
BSc, PhD, MRSB, MIMarEST
work
Liverpool
marcelo.rodrigues@brookesbell.com
Career Summary
Dr Marcelo Rodrigues, a dual-national Consultant Scientist, joined Brookes Bell as a marine consultant in 2018 after obtaining his PhD in Biological Sciences in Spain and six years’ post-doctoral experience between Austria and the United Kingdom, with internships in USA, France and Belgium. His areas of expertise lie in (1) the carriage of cargoes at sea encompassing loadport, voyage, discharge and quality disputes; as well as (2) hull fouling disputes.
Background
As a cargo scientist, his main area of expertise lies in the field of bulk and packaged commodities, advising shipowners, charterers, commodity traders, insurers and shipping lawyers. He advises on cargo properties and dangerous goods issues and has conducted survey investigations in many countries into incidences of cargo damage arising from preshipment and transportation, sampling and laboratory testing of such cargoes as well as contractual quality disputes.
As a bio-fouling scientist, he has been extensively involved with incidences of hull fouling to ship’s hulls. He has extensive experience on the biology of major marine fouling organisms, which settle on ship’s hull and other submerged man-made structures and has conducted investigations into the origins, causes and extent of hull-fouling organisms. He has presented at several international conferences on this subject, acts as referee for scientific journals and expert panels for the European Union, and has published peerreviewed articles in top scientific journals. He obtained EU funding and co-organised the Brookes Bell Biofouling Workshop in Liverpool in 2019.
Marcelo has prepared technical reports and has given evidence as expert witness at High Court Proceedings in London. Before joining Brookes Bell, he carried out academic research on multi-disciplinary marine
science, molecular biology and bio-chemistry projects, and completed three research expeditions on-board oceanographic research vessels.
In addition to English, Marcelo is fluent in the Portuguese and Spanish languages.
Academic Qualifications
- PhD in Biological Sciences (University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain)
- BSc in Biological Sciences (Santa Cecilia University, Brazil)
Other Post-Graduate Education
- EMBL-EBI practical course. Proteomics Bioinformatics. Hinxton, UK
- Hands-On Proteomics Workshop. Technische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria
- EMBO practical course on Targeted Proteomics: Experimental design and data analysis. Centre for genomic regulation, Barcelona, Spain
- 9th European Summer School on Advanced Proteomics. Brixen, Italy
- EMBO practical course on The Characterization of Post-Translational Modifications. University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- Intellectual Property Rights Workshop for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellows. European Patent Office. Munich, Germany
- An introductory course to RNA-seq. Centro de Biotecnologie Molecolari. Torino, Italy
- EMBL-EBI practical course. Introduction to Next Generation Sequencing. Hinxton, UK
- EMBO global exchange lecture course on Structural and Biophysical Methods for Biological Macromolecules in Solution. University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Professional Associations
- Member of the Royal Society of Biology.
- Member of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.
- Management Committee for the UK (deputy) for the COST Action CA15216. European Network of Bioadhesion Expertise: Fundamental knowledge to inspire advanced bonding technologies.
- Member of the COST Action TD0906. Biological Adhesives: From biology to biomimetics.
Previous Employment History
- Newcastle University (UK) - Senior Research Associate, Leverhulme Trust
- University of Innsbruck (Austria) - Postdoctoral Fellow, Intra-European Marie Curie Fellow.
- University of Innsbruck (Austria) - Postdoctoral Associate, FWF project.
- University of Vigo (Vigo, Spain) – PhD Candidate, with various governmental fellowships.
Scientific and Consultancy Experience
Survey and consultancy examples include, but not limited to:
‐ Hull fouling disputes worldwide.
‐ Damage to soya bean cargoes in China, Argentina, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Italy.
‐ Water damage to cargoes of rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, safflower seeds in Vietnam, Cameroon, Mexico, Sudan, Egypt, Mozambique, Turkey, Cuba.
‐ Quality dispute of raw cashew nuts in Ivory Coast and Vietnam.
‐ Delayed delivery of shea nuts from Ivory Coast to Denmark.
‐ GMO cargo disputes in the EU.
‐ Transhipment of wheat after vessel’s engine failure in Spain.
‐ Self-heating of animal feed in the UK.
‐ Damage to fertilisers in Mozambique, Mexico, UK, Brazil, India, Kenya, China, Argentina, Italy, Spain.
‐ Caking of alumina calcine in Italy.
‐ Transport of baled cotton from West Africa to India
‐ Damage to sulphur in Argentina.
‐ Investigation on the presence of pesticides in sunflower seeds in Romania.
‐ Insect infestation in wood pulp cargo in Italy.
‐ Fuel oil off-specifications in the UK.
‐ Transport of dangerous goods.
‐ Quality issues of zinc oxide imported into China.
‐ Coal self-heating and its explosion risk management in Indonesia.
‐ Investigation of marine fauna causing vessel casualty.
P&I Bulletins
- So K, Rodrigues M. Carriage of fertiliser cargo. UK P&I Club Carefully to Carry (2022).