Mark has been the Director of Georegulation since 2008, where he is responsible for leading the Australian scientific and technical program that manages Australia’s offshore boundaries.  This role includes assistance to Pacific States and selected Asian States under Australia’s Marine Resources Initiative. Since joining Geoscience Australia, he has participated in 42 marine surveys in waters from the Antarctic to North Korea.  

He was a member of the program that prepared and defended the Australian continental shelf submission and is leading the preparation of a revised submission for Williams Ridge at the Kergeulen Plateau.

He was a member of Australia’s delegation for the Compulsory Conciliation with Timor-Leste and was elected to the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority in 2017, and has been renominated for a second five-year term commencing in 2023.  He chairs the International Hydrographic Organisation S-121 Maritime Limits and Boundaries Project Team, tasked with improving the United Nation’s systems for depositing and publicising maritime limits and boundaries.  

He has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geology from the University of Canberra and A Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies in Environmental Law from the Australian National University.   

Joanna is the Associate Dean Research Faculty of Law at Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). Her research interests lie in public international law, particularly the law of the sea.

Joanna has been active in the Australia New Zealand Society of International Law including as a member of the ANZSIL Council and New Zealand Vice President. She is on the advisory board of several journals and has participated in a variety of international governmental and track two meetings on law of the sea including maritime security and governance of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Joanna’s book, The Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles: Rights and Responsibilities, was the joint winner of the JF Northey Memorial Book Award, presented by the New Zealand Legal Research Foundation for the best book by a New Zealand-based author published in 2016. In 2019 the New Zealand government nominated her to the list of arbitrators and conciliators under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Alice Revell currently manages the International Relations team at the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries. Previously, she worked at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for many years in both international law and foreign policy roles. These included managing the law of the sea and international environmental law team; leading the New Zealand delegation to the UN negotiations for a treaty on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and chairing negotiations on the BBNJ chapter on marine protected areas and other area-based management tools). She was posted in New York for three years to the New Zealand Permanent Mission to the UN, where she covered international law, oceans and fisheries issues. Earlier in her career she worked on New Zealand’s submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, represented New Zealand at regional fisheries and Antarctic meetings, and was seconded to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Phil Symonds is a former Senior Adviser – Science & Law of the Sea in Geoscience Australia. He was elected to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for two five-year terms from 2002 to 2012, and was a member of eight subcommissions. He is currently an Honorary Fellow at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong, and a private consultant on the delineation of continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.

He has worked in the marine geoscience field for over 50 years. In 1993 and 1995 he took part in Group of Experts meetings by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (DOALOS) to prepare for the establishment of the CLCS. From 1994-2002, he was the leader of Geoscience Australia’s Law of the Sea Project charged with preparing Australia’s continental shelf submission, and then Senior Adviser to Australia’s submission team. He has advised numerous countries on their continental shelf submissions.

Phil was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2005, and honorary Doctor of Science degrees by the University of Sydney and the University of Tasmania in 2009.

Donald Rothwell is one of Australia’s leading experts in International Law with specific focus on the law of the sea; law of the polar regions, use of force and implementation of international law within Australia. He is the author of 27 books and over 200 book chapters and articles including, with Tim Stephens, the influential and respected academic text, The International Law of the Sea (2nd ed, 2016). His forthcoming work is Islands and International Law (Hart: 2022).