Staff

FIELD BIOLOGIST

Nesime Askin

Director / Senior Scientist / Veterinarian

Carin Wittnich

STAFF

Nesime Askin obtained her PhD with the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto in 2014. She accepted a position as Field Biologist with the Oceanographic Environmental Research Society at their field station, the Comeauville Marine Institute in Nova Scotia, where she has worked since graduating. Her research interests are in the area of eelgrass and the impact of climate change and pollution has on them. She has been an invited lecturer, both to the University of Saint Anne and Dalhousie University to discuss shark and other marine mammal topics to undergraduate students.

Carin Wittnich is a veterinarian and Professor in the Departments of Physiology & Surgery at the University of Toronto, Canada and Senior Scientist with the Oceanographic Environmental Research Society. She has established a number of unique and well received marine mammal courses at the university for which she has received a number of teaching awards, including, in 2020, Sustained Excellence and innovation in Life Sciences Education. Her research focus for the last decade has been on ocean contaminants, particularly heavy metals and their impact on aquatic species from mammals to fish. She is also JMATE’s founding Editor.