Dr. Katherine Yates

Current positions

Director of the Doctoral School; Reader in Marine and Coastal Management

Biography

My academic career started at the University of East Anglia, where I studied Environmental Science and where I first began to really grasp the multi-disciplinarity of environmental management problems. I then spent several years working for conservation NGOs, including Coral Cay Conservation and ARCAS. I returned to University to undertake my MSc at the University of York with Callum Roberts and got interested in marine protected areas and fisheries management. As part of my MSc I won a grant to work in Bermuda and develop spatial conservation plans for their nearshore reefs.

I then worked as a Field Instructor for Ecology Project International, where I had the opportunity to take groups of students to remote field stations for up to two weeks. I delivered a range of classes in tropical ecology and conservation, ran team building exercises and supported the students in conducting independent research projects. Having found my ideal PhD, I returned to the UK to study at Ulster University with Dr David Schoeman and undertake a project looking at Northern Ireland’s network of marine protected areas.

From my PhD I published five papers and provided data that feed directly into the local marine spatial planning process. Whilst at Ulster University I also worked as a tutor on an MSc Coastal Management course and I have published with a number of my students. During my PhD I won a scholarship to spend six months at the University of Queensland in Australia, in the prestigious Centre for Excellence in Environmental Decisions (CEED) with Hugh Possingham.

I stayed in Australia after that and worked as a Postdoctoral Research for the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). There I was developing distribution models for various aspects of fish biodiversity and testing the transferability of those models in space. Since joining Salford I have secured four NERC grants and continue with research on spatial conservation planning, both from ecological and socio-economic perspectives. I am currently a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow working with the UK Marine Management Organisation, exploring barriers and incentives to science-policy collaborations and facilitating the incorporation of cutting-edge science into policy and management.

Areas of research

Marine Spatial Management, Stakeholders, Policy, Marine Protected Areas, Fisheries Management