September 7, 2006 Source: :
http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/newsreleases.cfm?id=7855 University of Alberta names new director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute University of Alberta Vice-President (Research), Dr. Gary Kachanoski, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Marianne Douglas as director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute (CCI) effective 1 September 2006. Dr Douglas has also been appointed as a professor in the University of Alberta Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. Dr. Douglas joins the University of Alberta from the University of Toronto, where she headed the Paleoenvironmental Assessment Laboratory (PAL) as professor in the Department of Geology and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Change. She completed her university degrees at Queen's University with a short séjour in Paris, where she studied algal taxonomy. After completion of her PhD (1993), she spent two years as a research associate at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) in the Department of Geosciences before joining the University of Toronto. Dr. Douglas is widely recognized as one of Canada's most experienced Arctic field scientists, having completed more than 20 seasons of research across the archipelago. She has supervised a wide range of undergraduate and graduate theses and mentored four post doctoral fellows. Dr. Douglas has served on numerous review and funding committees for northern science, and her current positions include Chair of NSERC Committee 09, membership on the Scientific Screening Committee of the Polar Continental Shelf Project (NRCan, Ottawa), as well as internal university committees focused on northern programs. She is also a member of the Canadian Committee for Antarctic Research (CCAR) and currently serves as President, Canadian Quaternary Association (CANQUA). In the past, Dr. Douglas has served on the Northern Chairs Program, and the NSERC Northern Supplement Competition, and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS). In addition to these formal commitments, Dr. Douglas has volunteered additional service by participating in summer programs mentoring young women to consider science as a career. She has also helped to promote a better understanding of northern Canada through a variety of other public outreach work, ranging from appearances on CBC's Quirks and Quarks to presentations at elementary schools. The focus of Dr. Douglas' research concerns reconstructing environmental change in the Arctic and, more recently, in the Antarctic, through the analysis of lake sediment cores (paleolimnology). One of her most widely recognized contributions is the discovery of a dramatic diversification of diatom species in circumpolar lakes that record the advent of global warming of high latitudes. This and related research has been published in Science and Nature. Dr. Douglas brings an active and internationally recognized research program to the University of Alberta that strongly complements parallel studies concerning environmental change in numerous University of Alberta departments. Dr. Douglas has developed expertise in the full spectrum of scientific, economic, social and cultural issues currently impacting the North. She is particularly eager to participate in the renewed commitment to Canadian polar science, as manifested in the national northern strategy and, especially, the strategic opportunities offered by the upcoming International Polar Year 2007-2008, for which the University of Alberta hosts the Canadian Secretariat. In partnership with sister institutions across the Alberta (notably the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary), CCI is poised to contribute strongly to these national and international initiatives, bolstering the University of Alberta's long established reputation in northern research. The Canadian Circumpolar Institute's mission is to establish a framework for integrated circumpolar research and teaching programs at the University of Alberta and to facilitate connections among research, policy, education and community outreach. Its long-term goal is to facilitate opportunities for Canadian researchers and students to be increasingly involved in multi-national and bi-polar programs and to bridge these efforts with the growing aspirations of northern communities and agencies within Canada. This will include advancing First Nations, Inuit, and local educational initiatives in partnership with these groups. The University of Alberta is delighted to welcome Dr. Douglas to her new leadership role in CCI at an exciting time of continuing growth of circumpolar research in Canada and beyond. For further information please contact: Dr. Marianne Douglas
Director, Canadian Circumpolar Institute
Professor, University of Alberta Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
780-492-0055
msdougla@ualberta.ca Ryan Smith
Media relations associate
University of Alberta Office of Public Affairs
780-492-0436
ryan.smith@ualberta.ca File # 36
September 7, 2006
| 