Biography
Dr Karen Alexander is currently Associate Professor in Marine Governance and Blue Economy in the International Centre for Island Technology at Heriot-Watt University.
After completing a PhD in Marine Science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)/University of Aberdeen, Karen continued to work at SAMS for a further 4 years. During this time she participated in several large EU Framework research programmes. She also helped to develop the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Aquaculture, Environment and Society. Karen then moved to Australia to work with the Centre for Marine Socio-ecology, based at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, where she remains an adjunct Senior Lecturer.
Karen has over 60 publications (books, journal articles and book chapters) and has managed a number of UK and Australian research projects totalling >$60M (approx £4M as principal investigator). She is also currently Secretary of the Marine Social Science Network, a member of the ICES Working Group on the Social and Economic Dimensions of Aquaculture (WGSEDA) and a Director of the Orkney Renewable Energy Forum.