CORVALLIS, Ore. – Karina Nielsen, the leader of a maritime science heart at San Francisco State University and an Oregon Point out University alumna, has been named director of Oregon Sea Grant, an OSU-based system that supports maritime science, education and outreach.
Nielsen, who acquired a doctorate in zoology from OSU in 1998, will start off her new placement on June 1 and oversee a staff of about 40. She replaces Shelby Walker, who was appointed to a senior leadership posture with the National Science Basis in September.
Nielsen is a biology professor at SFSU and executive director of the university’s Estuary and Ocean Science Middle, which is focused to enhancing public engagement with marine science and producing answers to environmental problems confronting coastal communities.
“Oregon Sea Grant’s analysis and outreach have sizeable impacts on the lives and livelihoods of Oregonians,” said Irem Tumer, Oregon State’s vice president for research. “Karina Nielsen is an skilled leader with a potent track record in research, coverage and outreach and deep understanding of the challenges Oregon is dealing with.”
Nielsen is a marine ecologist whose investigate focuses on the ecology, oceanography and biogeochemistry of ecosystems at the edge of the sea. Her research has been funded by NSF, Countrywide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California Sea Grant, California Ocean Security Council and California State Coastal Conservancy and revealed in journals, together with Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, Character and Ecology Letters.
She has been a science adviser to California’s Ocean Protection Council given that 2008 and a member of the governing council of the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing Procedure since 2010. In 2017, she was named a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, a group of much more than 400 experts who have produced notable contributions in normal science fields.
At SFSU, she aided acquire a master’s program in interdisciplinary marine and estuarine sciences. Prior to signing up for SFSU in 2014, she was a biology professor at Sonoma Point out University for 11 several years.
Nielsen acquired her doctoral diploma from Oregon State even though doing the job in the lab of Jane Lubchenco and Bruce Menge, studying the influence of vitamins, herbivores, and wave publicity on the composition of tidepools.
She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas (UC Chile Coastal Maritime Analysis Station) from 1998 to 2000 and with the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Experiments of Coastal Oceans at Oregon Condition from 2000 to 2003. She attained her undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College.
As director of Oregon Sea Grant, Nielsen seems to be forward to doing work intently with individuals who stay and get the job done on the coast and studying about issues that concern them.
“I am intrigued in the troubles confronting all-natural source administrators, fishermen, Indigenous tribes, conservationists, and other people and collaborating to produce and guidance evidence-based mostly answers that are equitable, functional and sustainable,” she explained. “The Oregon coast is blessed with bountiful normal resources and remarkable splendor, and we want to maintain these for potential generations.”
She also would like to focus on encouraging communities adapt to new realities, together with climate improve, and linked phenomena these types of as ocean acidification, lower oxygen in the ocean, shifting distribution of species and to the possibilities and problems involved with the progress of renewable marine strength.
Nielsen is also dedicated to continuing Oregon Sea Grant’s operate advancing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, including recruiting a varied applicant pool for its fellowships and internships establishing inclusive encounters for students and mentors and hence, aiding to diversify the workforce.
She programs to split her time in between OSU’s campus in Corvallis and Newport’s Hatfield Maritime Science Middle, in which Oregon Sea Grant operates a K-12 marine education system as well as a public schooling facility, recognized as the Customer Middle.
Dave Hansen has been serving as interim director of Oregon Sea Grant due to the fact 2021.