Peter Lawton,

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St Andrews Biological Station

Peter Lawton has been a Research Scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada since 1989, based in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick. Dr. Lawton earned his Ph.D. in Marine Zoology in 1983 from the University of Wales, Bangor, UK. Before taking up his position he held postdoctoral fellowships in Canada and the US, and was an Assistant Research Professor at the Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook, New York.

Through the 1990’s to mid-2000’s his research focused on the habitat requirements of lobsters, and on benthic recruitment processes in decapod crustaceans. From 1996 to 2003 he was the Section Head, Gulf of Maine Crustacean Fisheries Section, responsible for leading research projects and science advice development for one of the Atlantic Region’s major lobster fisheries.

He then reoriented his scientific research and advisory activities to support development of ecosystem-based management (EBM) approaches, with collaborative research, science advisory work, and outreach activity on marine biodiversity in the context of EBM.   From 2006-2012 he served as the Executive Director, Centre for Marine Biodiversity, a non-profit society registered in Nova Scotia, and was co-lead from 2008-2010 for the Census of Marine Life Gulf of Maine Area Program.

Since 2013 he has maintained strong linkages with marine biodiversity researchers in academia across Canada through his involvements in research projects and as a member of the leadership team of the initial and second NSERC Canadian Healthy Oceans Network.

Dr. Lawton is an Adjunct Professor at Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, and also at the University of New Brunswick.