John is a Research Associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Curatorial Affiliate at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates in Ithaca, New York.  He has been working on the systematics and evolution of African freshwater fishes for 10 years.  A specialist on African electric fishes (Family Mormyridae) and also interested in the evolution of catfishes (Order Siluriformes), John has conducted field work with colleagues in Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.  He received an African Regional Research award from the Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State enabling him to spend nine months working at University of Kisangani from January to October 2010.

Uli is Section Leader of Ichthyology at the State Museum of Zoology, Munich.  His research focuses on systematics, phylogeny, biogeography, and speciation within the freshwater fishes of West and Central Africa, the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, as well as those of Bavaria, Germany. African freshwater fishes on which he’s recenly published include Cichlidae and Distichodontidae. Uli has worked with Drs Kankonda and Ulyel to document to fish fauna at sites near Kisangani during two successive field seasons in 2008 and 2009 and plans to return in 2010.

Melanie is the Axelrod Research Curator in the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Her research is focused on the systematics and evolutionary biology of fishes, with a particular emphasis on freshwater conservation and the biodiversity of Old World tropical systems.  She has published systematic revisions of numerous groups of African fishes and was an editor of the recent volume “Fresh and Brackish Water Fishes of Lower Guinea.”  Melanie is Principal Investigator for the U.S. National Science Foundation-sponsored Congo Project, which is investigating the diversity of fishes of the Lower Congo.  Melanie has created renewed interest in the Congo Basin ichthyofauna and brings fresh approaches to its study.  Her support for the Upper Congo Fishes Project in Kisangani has been key to getting it underway.

Joseph is Professor in the Department of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture at UNIKIS and also teaches courses as a visiting professor at the University of Uéle, the University of Goma, the Teaching Institute of Higher Learning of Bukavu and the Institute of Agronomic Studies of Bengamisa. He is currently Managing Director of the Institute of Agronomic Studies of Bengamisa. His doctoral thesis concerned the feeding ecology of Haplochromis of Lake Kivu and his current research interests include many subjects in aquatic biology, fisheries and pisciculture.

John is Curator of Fishes, Reptiles and Amphibians at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates (CUMV) in Ithaca, New York. John is an expert on African catfishes and was a Principal Investigator of the 5-year All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI), a global effort to facilitate the discovery, description and dissemination of knowledge of all catfish species. John has conducted numerous fish collecting expeditions in East and Central Africa during the past decade.  His current research interest is the evolution and relationships of the mochokid catfishes, a family endemic to Africa and particularly diverse in the Congo River Basin.  John will provide assistance to the Project from the CUMV in Ithaca and hopes to participate in fieldwork in 2010.

Alidor is currently Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture at the University of Kisangani. He is also Visiting Professor at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Shalom University of Bunia. After working on the ecology of shellfish for his doctoral thesis, he is currently interested in the ecology of commercially important fishes, in pisciculture and in issues related to fisheries. To help meet the need for more trained professionals in the related fields of aquatic resources, ichthyology and aquaculture, Dr Kankonda with his colleague, Dr. Ulyel, initiated the creation of the Department of Hydrobiologie and Aquaculture in 2002, despite the difficulties posed by the armed conflict taking place at that time in Kisangani.

Jean Papy received a master’s degree in Biological Diversity Management in 2007 and is a researcher in the Laboratory of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture (LHA), University of Kisangani. He is hoping to pursue a doctoral thesis on the systematics and electric signaling behavior of African electric fish (Mormyridae: Campylomormyrus) in the region of Kisangani. In July 2009 he participated in an ichthyological expedition to the region of Aketi and Yangambi with the German scholars Drs. Ulrich Schliewen of the Munich Museum and Julia Schwartz.

Ernest is a researcher in the Laboratory of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture at the University of Kisangani. In 2009 Ernest completed his masters degree thesis on the biology of species of the catfish family Schilbidae in the Yoko River drainage system of Province Orientale, D.R. Congo.

Jean-Paul is a researcher within the Laboratory of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture at the University of Kisangani whose research has focused on the reproduction of diverse fish species.

Jon is Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes at Auburn University, Auburn, Aalabama, USA.  Jon is an expert on South American fishes, but is beginning a project on Cypriniformes as a PI on the upcoming All Cypriniformes Species Inventory funded through the US National Science Foundation.  All Cypriniformes will pick up from the All Catfishes Species Inventory with new cybertaxonomy initiatives that will provide databases on cypriniform morphometry and meristics in order to facilitate species descriptions.  Jon will coordinate research on African cypriniform taxonomy, with work likely to center on barbines and labeonines.

Albert Bulimwengu Walanga has a bachelor’s degree in Aquatic Biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Kisangani. He is interested in biodiversity and ecology of fishes in the genus Barbus and Labeobarbus in the region of Kisangani and the possible uses of these fishes in the aquarium trade and fish culture. His research is supervised by the Department of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture, Faculty of Sciences at UNIKIS.

Keith is a doctoral student in Dr Jon Armbruster’s lab at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, USA.  Keith did his masters degree work on the taxonomy of the South American catfish genus Hypostomus and is interested in the aquatic fauna of the Southeastern United States.  He is making his first trip to Africa with support from the All Cypriniforms Species Inventory.  Keith is preparing to begin doctoral studies on cypriniform fishes.

Sebastien received his PhD from the National Museum of Natural History, Paris.  While he has published molecular phylogenetic studies on numerous groups of freshwater and marine fishes over the past several years, he has maintained a research interest in the mormyrid electric fishes of Africa, the group that was the subject of his dissertation research.  He will join Dr. Sullivan in Kisangani for two weeks in September. Dr. Lavoué is currently a postdoc in the laboratory of Dr. Lukas Ruber at the British Museum (Natural History) in London.