After more than 15 years as OTN’s scientific director, Sara Iverson retired in December 2023 and passed the torch to Robert Lennox.
Sara became the scientific director of OTN as it was being launched in 2008, and co-led and directed OTN with executive director, Fred Whoriskey, until her retirement last year. Together, they have overseen the growth of OTN from its launch as a seven-year International Joint Venture Project into a preeminent Canada Foundation for Innovation national research facility (Major Science Initiative). Under their leadership, OTN has evolved into the vibrant global network it is today.
We asked Sara to reflect on her time at the organization. Here’s what she had to say:
Sara will be deeply missed, but she’ll remain intricately connected to the organization through scientific advisory and research roles—and as a forever OTN family member!
Sara's Bio
Sara grew up in Michigan, spending her summers on the waters of northern Lake Huron. There, she nurtured her passion for animals, nature, and conservation from an early age. She pursued her B.Sc. in zoology at Duke University. Following a post-graduate research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, she began her long association with the department of zoological research at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo, first as a PhD student (jointly with the University of Maryland) working on the physiological ecology of sea lions in the outer California Channel Islands and subsequently as a long-term Smithsonian research associate.
After receiving her PhD, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at Georgetown University and then a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) international postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute of Fisheries Technology to work primarily on developing methods for elucidating marine mammal diets and aquatic food webs.
In 1994, Sara became a professor in the biology department at Dalhousie University, establishing a long-term research program on physiological ecology and fat metabolism in marine mammals, seabirds and Holarctic bears. Sara is a former NSERC EWR Steacie Fellow, Killam Prize Awardee, University Research Fellow, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Science.
Sara became the scientific director of OTN as it was being launched in 2008 and co-led and directed OTN with executive director, Fred Whoriskey, until December 2023. Together, they have overseen the growth of OTN from its launch as a seven-year International Joint Venture Project into a preeminent Canada Foundation for Innovation national research facility (Major Science Initiative). Although Sara officially stepped down as scientific director, she will remain intricately connected to OTN through scientific advisory and research roles.