Open Dialogue Live: Accelerating ocean research at Dalhousie

Did you know that the ocean absorbs more carbon than all the rainforests combined? Yet the ocean is missing from climate action conversations. Working with national and international partners, Dalhousie researchers have a plan. They envision a global research collaboration that will transform climate action and develop new technology and practices that will create a robust, equitable and just ocean economy.

Join us for this panel discussion to learn about how the ocean controls our climate, drives our weather and Dalhousie’s plan to bring the ocean to the centre of global climate action.

This event will be presented in person in the Atrium of the Steele Ocean Sciences Building on our Studley Campus, as well as livestreamed via and . All attendees will have an opportunity to engage during the Q&A portion following the discussion.

Register to attend

This event is free and open to the public, but guests must RSVP to attend in person or to participate virtually via livestream.

Our moderator

Dr. Anya Waite is Scientific Director and CEO of the Ocean Frontier Institute, and Associate Vice-President Research (Ocean) of Dalhousie University. 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 BSc in biology in 1985 Dalhousie, she obtained her PhD in 1992 in biological oceanography at the University of British Columbia. She then held postdoctoral positions at WHOI (USA) and the Victoria University (New Zealand).

In 1997 Dr. Waite took a professorship at University of Western Australia in Perth, and was there for 17 years as a biological oceanographer. She was a research group leader in the Oceans Institute as well as teaching students in the Environmental Engineering program. Dr. Waite’s early work included participation in the first Southern Ocean iron fertilization experiment, SOIREE. After this, Dr. Waite’s work in the East Indian Ocean explored the dynamics of mesoscale eddies, the nitrogen cycle in oligotrophic systems and the biology of the spiny lobster larvae in Australian waters. Her current interests include nitrogen fluxes in polar oceans and particle dynamics in mesoscale eddies.

Dr. 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.

Earlier commitments included the Board of Directors of the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre ACE CRC in Hobart, Australia, the Norwegian Research Council Advisory Board, the Programme Advisory Group for the NERC Changing Arctic Ocean Research Programme, and the Board of Directors for the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

Read more about the panelists on the Alumni & Friends website.

Host or Publisher Dalhousie University Alumni and Friends