Credit: Lana

Independent Science Panel

This group provides expert advice to the Governance Group.

Our panel members are senior researchers from all around the world. They have extensive experience across a range of disciplines including social science, economics, EBM, policy, and mātauranga Māori. As well as providing strategic advice, they help assess the quality and performance of our research.

Chair

Ian Perry

Emeritus Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Canada)

Ian’s research expertise includes environmental influences on the distributions and recruitment of marine organisms; the structure and function of marine ecosystems; developing ecosystem-based approaches to marine resources management; the human dimensions of marine ecosystem changes; and scientific leadership of international and inter-governmental programmes on marine ecosystems and global change.

Ian is currently the head of the Plankton Ecology and Ecosystems Oceanography Program for Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Pacific Region at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, BC. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Oceans and Fisheries of the University of British Columbia and has taught courses on fisheries oceanography at universities in Canada, Chile and Portugal. Previously, he was Chair of the international Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) programme, which was designed to understand how global change will affect the abundance, diversity and productivity of marine populations, and was a former Chief Scientist and Chair of the Science Board for the North Pacific Marine Science Organisation (PICES).

Members

Eddie Allison

Research Chair for Equity and Justice in the Blue Economy, WorldFish (Malaysia) & Research Director at the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Program, University of Washington (US)

Eddie’s research centres on the human connection to natural resources. His research interests are broad, and encompass global environmental change, coastal zone, ecosystem and resource management, policy analysis, and sustainability science. His primary areas of focus are the contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to food and nutrition security and coastal livelihoods; governance of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture production; the human rights of fisherfolk; and the vulnerability and adaptation to climate change of people dependent on marine and freshwater resources.

He has held faculty appointments at the University of East Anglia, UK and the University of Washington, USA and has worked for the UK Department for International Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Derek Armitage

Professor at the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo (Canada)

Derek studies the human dimensions of environmental change, community-based conservation and emerging forms of coastal and oceans governance. He works on projects in Canada, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Outcomes of his research support governance arrangements that facilitate opportunities for learning and knowledge co-production among resource users, government actors and researchers; tools to understand the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of individuals and communities; and resource use strategies adapted to drivers of social-ecological change.

Te Kani Kingi

Professor & Executive Director of Research and Innovation, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi (New Zealand)

Te Kani Kingi is of Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Awa and Ngāi Tai descent. Prior to Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, he spent 20 years at Massey University holding many senior academic leadership roles including as Director of the Academy for Māori Research and Scholarship. His early research investigated the disparity between Māori and non-Māori in mental health.

His research and academic leadership roles highlight his passion for recognising the importance of the relationship between culture and health. He has also had significant influence in advocating for the development of mātauranga Māori-based models in health research and practice. He has an outstanding national and international reputation as an academic scholar, mentor, leader and advisor and holds several governance positions that utilise his mātauranga Māori and health research expertise.

Wendy Lawson

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, AUT

Wendy’s research centres on glaciers in both Aotearoa New Zealand and Antarctica, including their drainage, morphology, velocity and how they are affected by weather. Wendy’s work also has a particular focus on understanding the response of various types of ice masses to a changing climate.

Hailing from the UK, Wendy came to Aotearoa in 1991 to take up a lecturing position at the University of Auckland. She has in-depth knowledge of higher education in Aotearoa along with a range of management and leadership experience in the academic sector. This includes two decades of crown governance, with directorships at Antarctica New Zealand, NIWA and MetService. Wendy recently served on MBIE's Te Pae Kahurangi Crown Research Institutes 2030 review panel, and she currently represents Aotearoa on the Board of Melbourne-based FrontierSI.

Ingrid van Putten

Research Scientist, CSIRO (Australia)

Ingrid’s interdisciplinary research focuses on modelling social and economic behaviour and the interactions with the biophysical marine environment. She uses network analysis and Bayesian models as well as qualitative models, to reflect the complexity in the bio-physical sphere as well as in social and economic systems. She uses these models to better understand coupled social-ecological systems.

Ingrid is an active member of the international Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research Programme, researching the impacts of global change on marine systems.