Highlights to date in distinguished career

SELINA Stead is a past president of the European Aquaculture Society and board member, and in 2016 she received the highest honour from the EAS, the Distinguished Service Award, and was made a life member.

This recognised her commitment to finding global marine food security solutions for vulnerable coastal communities across the world.

Professor Stead’s work at Newcastle University combines natural and social science methods. She also leads international teams to tackle complex problems such as poverty in coastal areas and marine food insecurity.

Her current and recent research spans marine science and governance of coral reef ecosystems; fisheries management and piracy in East Africa, Oman, Somalia and the UK; sea cucumber biology in South Africa; seaweed aquaculture in Malaysia; community based management in Nigeria, and; marine governance of Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, South Pacific, and the western Indian Ocean.

She was the chair and founder member of the Scottish government’s Marine Science Advisory Board from 2010 to 2017.

In July 2017 she was named the government’s new Chief Scientific Adviser for the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), and will play a key role in the development of marine policy post-Brexit.