Wendy Watson-Wright

Dr. Wendy Watson-Wright (Ph.D. Physiology, Dalhousie) is retired from the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI), a Canadian-led interdisciplinary transnational research institute whose aim is the safe and sustainable development of the ocean frontier.

From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Watson-Wright served as the Executive Secretary and Assistant Director General of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) in Paris. The IOC is considered as the competent international organization for marine scientific research in the United Nations. For most of her career, she held various senior positions within Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including as Assistant Deputy Minister of Science from 2001 to 2009.

Dr. Watson-Wright has been on several boards and panels including the Belmont Forum Review Panel on the Collaborative Research Action call for Ocean Sustainability (Chair), the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Ocean and Atmosphere program review panel, the Board of Governors for the International Ocean Institute, the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the Federal Science and Technology Infrastructure Initiative (Chair), and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health X-Prize. She is a Killam scholar.