Marine biologist Ron O’Dor is leading a global effort to document life in the planet’s oceans, and he’s coming to York Monday to talk about it.
Named Canadian Geographic‘s Environmental Scientist of the Year in 2009, this world-renowned ocean tracker from Dalhousie University will deliver the annual Morris Katz Memorial Lecture in Environmental Research. The lecture begins at 2:30pm in the Senate Chamber, N940 Ross Building. Arrive early if you want a seat.
Left: Ron O’Dor
O’Dor spearheads two massive projects that could lead to protecting and preserving marine life around the world.
He is the global scientific director of the Dalhousie-headquartered Ocean Tracking Network, a $168-million global conservation project uniting leading ocean scientists around the globe. Acoustic tags and receivers track and record the migration and feeding habits of marine life around the world and measure information such as water salinity and temperature. The project will put an end to the knowledge void of the ocean and lead to a global standard in ocean management.
Since 2001, O’Dor has been a senior scientist for the Census of Marine Life, a Washington, DC-
based, 10-year project to gauge and record the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the world’s oceans by scientists in 82 nations.
Right: Census of Marine Life image
A marine biology professor at Dalhousie since 1973, O’Dor has been studying and tracking cuttlefish, squid and horseshoe crabs in the world’s oceans for more than 30 years. Educated in engineering, biochemistry and medical physiology, he brings a unique perspective to marine biological research. He is world renowned for developing radio-acoustic positioning telemetry (RAPT) systems for marine protected areas and is an expert in marine biogeography, biodiversity and ocean exploration.
The Morris Katz Memorial Lecture is sponsored by York’s Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.