Ruth Callaway is a marine ecologist working at Swansea University, Wales, UK. She is a specialist in benthic invertebrates and their ecology and has over 20 years’ experience of working in marine and coastal environments. Ruth is particularly interested in applied issues, such as the impact of infrastructure development on benthic biodiversity, as well as coastal governance and management. She has worked on the link between commercial fisheries and biodiversity patterns, causes of bivalve mortalities in a commercially harvested estuary, as well as the impact of climate change on coastal marshland. She led research into opportunities and threats of aquaculture in coastal habitats, particularly in combination with marine renewable infrastructure. Her passion remain benthic species that form biogenic reefs, such as tube-dwelling polychaete or bivalve reefs, and their role in ecosystems. She supervised industry-supported PhDs on Sabellaria reefs, artificial islands as habitat creation and non-native species in ports. Currently she is working for the EU projects SEACAMS2 and Ecostructure, and the H2020 project GRRIP, which focuses on collaborative research with marine renewable energy and coastal infrastructure companies in order to enhance value of artificial structures for marine wildlife.