Kit has worked with Arctic vertebrate ecology for the past 20 years, commencing fieldwork in the high Arctic while she was still an undergraduate. She was a provincial (Ontario Graduate Scholar), national (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) and international (Science NATO scholar) scholar during graduate studies and was hired directly out of her PDF at Cambridge in the UK, into a faculty position at the University of Waterloo. Her research programme during the 12 years she was employed at U of W focussed on the population biology and reproductive ecology of ice-breeding seals. Her teaching responsibilities were involved with population ecology, marine biology, behavioural ecology, marine mammalogy, general ecology and statistics. Approximately 4 months of each year during this engagement was spent in the field, working principally with Arctic seals that breed on free-floating pack ice (harp, hooded, grey, but also harbour seals).
Kit commenced working in Svalbard in 1992, with ringed, bearded and harbour seals as well as with white whales, narwhal and walrus. She took a position on faculty at University Studies on Svalbard in 1997 and lived on Svalbard for 2.5 years. During this time she taught Arctic ecology and population biology and graduated 5 additional M.Sc. students. Being located on Svalbard also permitted an intensification of personal research activities around the entire Archipelago. Kit’s various research activities have been funded by The National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, The Norwegian Research Council, NATO Scientific Collaborative Grants, The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada), The Canadian Wildlife Service, National Geographic, World Wide Fund for Nature and other sponsors.
In September of 1999, Kit moved south to Tromsø and began work as a research scientist and Biodiversity Research Programme Leader for the Norwegian Polar Institute. The responsibilities of this position include administrative responsibility for 10+ scientific staff members, research programme development and research activity. Kit is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Society of Marine Mammalogy (SMM); President-elect on the Board of the SMM; a (Norwegian) national representative for CAFF’s Monitoring of Arctic Biodiversity Plan and Leader of CAFF’s International Ringed Seal Monitoring Network; and a National Representative and author within the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). Kit has the rank of Full Professor and has published 90+ peer-reviewed journal articles, one book and numerous popular articles, scientific reports and book chapters. |
