Dalhousie University Scientists

Dr. Ron O'Dor, OTN Project Lead, is a professor of biology at Dalhousie University. He is also the Senior Scientist for the international Census of Marine Life (CoML). He is a world leader in biotelemetry, environmental physiology, and squid biology, and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles as well as several books.

Dr. Jeff Hutchings is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Marine Conservation and Biodiversity. His research, aimed at optimizing the economic potential of Canada's oceans while ensuring their conservation and biodiversity, focuses on questions in evolutionary and community ecology, as well as conservation and population biology of marine and anadromous fishes.

Dr. Sara Iverson is a biology professor and a former NSERC E.W.R. Steacie fellow. She studies how animals adapt to and exploit their environments, and the physiological and biochemical mechanisms that constrain or provide opportunities for them to do so. Her research on the regulation of lipid metabolism in vertebrates provides a better understanding of the diets of free-range animals and the food webs within which they function, and has implications for the conservation and management of marine mammals, seabirds, and fish.

Dr. Marlon Lewis is an oceanography professor and Chairman, CEO, and Chief Scientist of Satlantic Incorporated. With research interests spanning upper ocean physics and biological processes to the ocean's role in global climate, he is an advisor to organizations and governments in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Asia. He has received a NASA Special Outstanding Achievement Award, a Dalhousie Killam Prize, and a Poste Rouge from the French Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique. Named Entrepreneur of the Year (Technology) and one of the Top 50 CEOs in Atlantic Canada, he also holds adjunct appointments at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the Ocean University of China.

Dr. Mike Stokesbury is a marine biologist at Dalhousie University. He has published several tracking studies including migrational and behavioural research on Atlantic salmon and Greenland sharks and co-authored a paper in "Nature" on the Atlantic bluefin tuna population structure. His research focuses on the study of movement and behaviour of large marine predators through the use of satellite, archival, and acoustic tagging equipment.

Dr. Keith Thompson is a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Marine Prediction and Environmental Sciences. His research involves understanding the dynamics that control the changing physical state of continental shelf seas and the open ocean. Data on global sea surface properties from sources including satellites and a worldwide system of autonomous floating profilers are used by Dr. Thompson, in conjunction with novel statistical techniques, to develop realistic models to forecast storm surges and currents along Atlantic Canada's seaboard and the motion of ocean eddies that fill the western part of many ocean basins.

Dr. David VanderZwaag is a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Ocean Law and Governance and a specialist on the Law of the Sea. His research aims to develop legislative and regulatory reforms for supporting more principled decision-making in ocean governance, especially as it pertains to ecosystem-based management, indigenous rights, and the role of regional agreements in managing fisheries and protecting the marine environment and biodiversity. He also investigates ways to better protect endangered or threatened marine species and their habitats and how the federal Species at Risk Act has affected Canada's marine resource sectors such as the offshore oil and gas industry and aquaculture operations.