Dr. Sara Iverson is the Scientific Director of the global Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), an international infrastructure, research, and technology development platform, launched and supported primarily by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), but also the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and numerous international partnerships. Headquartered at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia), OTN is building an entirely new global ocean observation system, one that is centered on measuring marine animal movements, habitat use and survival, in relation to changing ocean conditions, with a dedicated focus to advance the governance of the world’s oceans. OTN is weaving together many scientific and social disciplines, including technology development, scientific discovery, global data management, international sharing and partnership strategies, social and legal policy and implementation, and training of the next generation of ocean scientists, policy makers, managers, and conservation practitioners.

Dr. Iverson is a professor in the Department of Biology and currently holds the title of University Research Professor for distinction in scholarship; she is also a former NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Fellow. She received her BSc from Duke University and conducted her PhD in comparative physiological ecology jointly at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and the University of Maryland. Dr. Iverson also leads an active research program in physiological ecology, whose laboratory uses a suite of tools ranging from biochemical tracers to energetic measurements to tracking studies to better understand the biology of marine vertebrates and the food webs and environments within which they function.