Kathryn (Kate) Moran is an ocean engineer and Professor in the Faculty of Science at the
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...
. She is president and CEO of
Ocean Networks Canada
Ocean Networks Canada is a world-leading research and ocean observing facility hosted and owned by the University of Victoria, and managed by the not-for profit ONC Society. ONC operates unparalleled observatories in the deep ocean and coastal ...
.
Education
Kate Moran grew up in Pennsylvania, where she first became interested in the ocean. Moran completed a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
. She spent some time working at Procter and Gamble before joining a new program in Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. After receiving a job offer from the Atlantic Geoscience Centre, she moved to
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
. She received her PhD in 1995 from
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...
, under the supervision of Hans Uaziri and Geoff Meyerhoff.
Research
Moran researches marine
geotechnics
Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...
and
paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology ( British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of ...
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. The expedition was organised by the
Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat ( Swedish: ''Polarforskningssekretariatet'') is a government agency in charge of coordinating and promoting Swedish polar research activities. It is located in Stockholm, has more than 30 employees, and serv ...
, who even threw a party for the scientists on the ice. Her team identified the earthquake that was the cause of the 2004 Indian Tsunami. She was described by Todd McLeish as knowing "more about the history of Arctic
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
than anyone".
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. Between 2009 - 2011 Moran was seconded to
President Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...
's White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a department of the United States government, part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President (EOP), established by United States Congres ...
. Obama instructed the federal government to develop an ocean policy, which was released in 2012. Moran was involved with the government's response to the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...
in 2010. Moran was selected to be on Secretary
Steven Chu
Steven Chu Moran describes the efforts as "an incredible response, actually, by BP and the government". She is a supporter of renewable energy, "when I first started to be seriously concerned about the fact we need to stop reatingCO2, I got involved in the first offshore wind farm in the U.S".
In 2012, Moran took over as president and CEO of
Ocean Networks Canada
Ocean Networks Canada is a world-leading research and ocean observing facility hosted and owned by the University of Victoria, and managed by the not-for profit ONC Society. ONC operates unparalleled observatories in the deep ocean and coastal ...
, where she oversees Canada's advanced cabled ocean observatories, NEPTUNE, in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and VENUS. The cabled observatories are open-access: their data are provided free-of-charge to anyone in the world. She is a board member of the Clear Seas Centre for Responsible Marine Shipping.
In 2012, Moran delivered a TEDx talk in Vancouver, entitled "Connecting our Planet's Oceans... To the Internet". Her observation systems provide 24 hour monitoring of ocean processes. In 2015 she secured $5 million funding from the British Columbia government for early earthquake detection. In 2017, Moran won a $2.4 million grant from the
Canada Foundation for Innovation The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI; , ''FCI'') is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to invest in research facilities and equipment in Canada's universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research in ...
to build a new observatory to provide information on seismic and tsunami risks in
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. She is an "Expert on Priority Research Questions for Canadian Open Science".
Moran was appointed to the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...