Andia Chaves Fonnegra

Andia Chaves Fonnegra is a Colombian marine biologist known for her research on the marine sponge Cliona delitrix.

Education and career Fonnegra earned her bachelor's degree (2003) in marine biology from the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University and her master's degree (2006) in marine biology from the National University of Colombia. Fonnegra's dissertation was "Increase of Excavating Sponges on Caribbean Coral Reefs: Reproduction, Dispersal, and Coral Deterioration".

The excavating action of the sponge Cliona delitrix on the coral reefs is Andia Chaves' main line of research. Fonnegra was a postdoctoral researcher at the Coral Reef Restoration, Assessment & Monitoring (CRRAM) Laboratory - Nova Southeastern University in 2014-2015, later at the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies (CMES) - University of the Virgin Islands in 2016-2017, and also at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences - University of Mississippi in 2018. In 2018, she became an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University, where she has a joint appointment between the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and the Harriet Wilkes Honors College. an organism that grows between the calcium carbonate that forms the skeleton of coral reefs and that, through an excavating action, gradually deteriorates the coral. In the Caribbean Sea the development of this sponge has accelerated in recent years, resulting in the gradual erosion of corals, altering the ecosystem.

Awards and honors 2002 – SIGMA XI Grant Award, Scientific Research Society 2006 – Meritorious Mention Master's Thesis, Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2008 – Donald Ross Academic Merit, University of Alberta 2010 – NSU Chancellor´s Faculty Research and Development Grant, Nova Southeastern University 2011 – L'Oréal-UNESCO Scholarship for Women in Science 2019 – Gulf Research Program’s Early-Career Research Fellowships of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. 2023 - NSF Early Career Award, Florida Atlantic University

Selected publications