Professor Selina Stead

• Professor of Marine Governance and Environmental Science Newcastle University
• Email: selina.stead@ncl.ac.uk

Professor Stead is the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor for the Marine Management Organisation. She specialises in international marine science policy with a particular emphasis on fisheries, aquaculture, food security, livelihoods and Marine Protected Areas.

In 2016, Professor Stead received the highest honour from the European Aquaculture Society in which she served as its President and Board Member for 12 years. The Distinguished Service Award recognised her commitment to finding global marine food security solutions for vulnerable coastal communities across the world. She continues to be active in field-based academic work in East Africa and the Indian Ocean, publishing widely on marine ecosystems and human interactions.

Between 2014 and 2016, Professor Stead served as Director of Research and Innovation and led the co-creation of a new research strategy to focus on five key global challenge themes. With senior colleagues she changed a teaching-led culture to a research-led culture. This effort was rewarded in achievement of the highest level of research income and international peer-reviewed papers eligible for the Research Excellence Framework.

As the sole natural scientist in two social science university departments (1996-2004) at Aberdeen University, she was instrumental in its transformation into an interdisciplinary centre promoting boundary crossing research and education. For the first time, she secured accreditation from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for new interdisciplinary degree programmes in marine resource management