Kate Moran

Kate Moran grew up in Pennsylvania, where she first became interested in the ocean.^[2] Moran completed a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She spent some time working at Procter and Gamble before joining a new program in Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island.^[2] After receiving a job offer from the Atlantic Geoscience Centre, she moved to Nova Scotia.^[3] She received her PhD in 1995 from Dalhousie University, under the supervision of Hans Uaziri and Geoff Meyerhoff.^[3]

Moran researches marine geotechnics and paleoclimatology and has led several oceanographic expeditions. In 2004 she was part of a team to extract 400 metres of sediment core from the Arctic sea floor, using it to understand the changing climate in the Arctic.^[4][5] The expedition was organised by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, who even threw a party for the scientists on the ice.^[4] Her team identified the earthquake that was the cause of the 2004 Indian Tsunami.^[6] She was described by Todd McLeish as knowing "more about the history of Arctic climate change than anyone".^[7]

In 2008, Moran delivered testimony to the US Senate committee on Environmental and Public Works outlining the scientific evidence for climate change, and future predictions which resulted from the research.^[8] Between 2009 - 2011 Moran was seconded to President Obama's White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.^[9] Obama instructed the federal government to develop an ocean policy, which was released in 2012.^[10][11] Moran was involved with the government's response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.^[2] Moran was selected to be on Secretary Steven Chu's team in that response.^[3] Moran describes the efforts as "an incredible response, actually, by BP and the government".^[2] She is a supporter of renewable energy, "when I first started to be seriously concerned about the fact we need to stop [creating] CO2, I got involved in the first offshore wind farm in the U.S".^[2][12][13]

In 2012, Moran took over as president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, where she oversees Canada's advanced cabled ocean observatories, NEPTUNE, in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and VENUS.^[1][14] The cabled observatories are open-access: their data are provided free-of-charge to anyone in the world.^[11] She is a board member of the Clear Seas Centre for Responsible Marine Shipping.^[15]

In 2012, Moran delivered a TEDx talk in Vancouver, entitled "Connecting our Planet's Oceans... To the Internet".^[16] Her observation systems provide 24 hour monitoring of ocean processes.^[17] In 2015 she secured $5 million funding from the British Columbia government for early earthquake detection.^[18] In 2017, Moran won a $2.4 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to build a new observatory to provide information on seismic and tsunami risks in British Columbia.^[19] She is an "Expert on Priority Research Questions for Canadian Open Science".^[20]

Moran was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2023, with the rank of Officer.^[21]