Sarah Wanless
Professor Sarah Wanless | |
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| Born | Scarborough, England |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Marine ecology |
| Institutions | Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |
Sarah Wanless is a retired English ornithologist who focused on seabirds in marine ecosystems.
Life and career
Wanless was born in Scarborough but moved to Aberdeen in 1969 for her undergraduate degree and then her PhD which focused on Northern Gannets over three seasons on the island of Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde.[1]
For most of her career Wanless has worked in the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. In the 1980s, she began one of the first radio-tracking studies into seabirds in the northern hemisphere which helped to identify foraging areas and helped to identify the dangers that seabirds face due to climate change,[1] pollution, fishing and off-shore wind farms.[2] Most of this research was conducted on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. Wanless was also the first female visiting scientist to the British Antarctic Survey base on Bird Island in South Georgia[1] where she studied the diving behaviour of South Georgia Shags for two southern summers.[2]
Wanless was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2006,[3] won a Marsh Award for Conservation Biology in 2007,[1] gave the 2012 Witherby Memorial Lecture[4], won the Godman-Salvin Medal in 2014 and was named one of the Outstanding Women of Scotland in 2018 by the Saltire Society. She also received honorary professorships from the University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen and lifetime achievement awards from the UK Seabird Group[1] and the Pacific Seabird Group. Over her career, Wanless published 250 papers.[5]
She retired in 2016 but remained involved with research with the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.[2]
Bibliography
- The Puffin with Mike P. Harris (2012) ISBN 978-1-4081-0867-3
References
- ^ a b c d e "Sarah Wanless". www.saltiresociety.org.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ a b c Williams, Simon (24 October 2018). "Pioneering CEH scientist named as an 'Outstanding Woman of Scotland'". Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "Professor Sarah Wanless FRSE". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "Witherby Memorial Lectures | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology". www.bto.org. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "Sarah Wanless". Pacific Seabird Group. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
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