Ronald O'Dor: Census of Marine Life Senior Scientist, CORE Research Division

Tel: (202) 448-1233
Email: rodor@oceanleadership.org

Ron O’Dor joined CORE in 2001 as Census of Marine Life (COML) Senior Scientist, on leave from the Dalhousie University Biology Department. After degrees in biochemistry and medical physiology, a post-doc at Cambridge University and Stazione Zoologica, Naples turned him to cephalopods and marine biology. Studies on cephalopod behaviour and physiology in nature using telemetry led to involvement in large scale tracking arrays. Everything in the ocean eats squid, so a history of being the token squid biologist at conferences was good preparation for his current role as roving ambassador between projects and program spokesperson, supported by the Secretariat. Within COML he is developing the Ocean Tracking Network to monitor marine animals from 20g salmon to 20MT whales with arrays that detect globally unique acoustic codes as part of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). Tags lasting up to 20 years give new time-series perspectives on changes in individual movements in relation to climate change.

Ron doesn’t have any hobbies or take vacations because his career of travel and visiting exotic places makes them unnecessary.