Anya Waite
CEO & Scientific Director, Ocean Frontier Institute
Dr. Anya Waite is Associate Vice-President Research (Ocean) of Dalhousie University and Scientific Director and CEO of the Ocean Frontier Institute. Previously, she served as Section Head of Polar Biological Oceanography at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven and as Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Biology at the University of Bremen.
After completing a B.Sc. in Biology in 1985 at Dalhousie, she obtained her Ph.D. in 1992 in Biological Oceanography at UBC. She then held postdoctoral positions at WHOI (USA) and the Victoria University (New Zealand) and spent almost 20 years as an engineering professor at the University of Western Australia. Waite is co-chair of the prestigious Global Ocean Observation System steering committee – the first woman at the head of this body since its creation in 2011. She also sits on the boards of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR). She is on the Editorial Board of the international journal Limnology and Oceanography, co-chair of the SCOR Working Group on biological observation systems, “P-OBS”, and was on the Steering Committee of the Southern Ocean Observation System (SOOS) from 2017–2020.
SPEAKERS & MODERATORS
Antje Boetius
Director, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Germany
Daniel Dunn
Director, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Australia
Karen Evans
Principal Research Scientist, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Tasmania
Diego Sancho Gallegos
Surf Conservation Data Coordinator, Save The Waves Coalition (STW), Costa Rica
Kristina M. Gjerde
Senior High Seas Advisor, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Global Marine and Polar Programme, USA
Anna-Katharina Hornidge
Director, The German Development Institute (DIE)/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Germany
Simone Pennafirme
Manager, Marine Life Center, Secretariat for Environment of the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro
J. Murray Roberts
Professor, University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences & Head, Changing Oceans Research Group & Coordinator, European Horizon 2020 iAtlantic Project, Scotland
Vladimir Ryabinin
Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, France
Jens Schiffers
Scientific Officer, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany
Jörn Schmidt
Chair, Science Committee, International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Denmark
Mirja Schoderer
Reseacher, The German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Germany
Sebastian Unger
Head, Ocean Governance Research Group, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, Germany
