The INSITE Independent Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) has been appointed to prepare the Request for Proposals (RfP) package and recommend funding awards from the proposals which it believes will best deliver on the Programme’s objectives. The ISAB is responsible for ensuring that the Programme delivers the highest quality science and is made up of the following members:

Associate Professor Torgeir Bakke,

Norwegian Institute for Water Research (Chair)

Torgeir Bakke received his cand. real. Degree in marine biology (zoology) at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1972 where he subsequently worked as Assistant Professor before his appointment to the post of Research Scientist at the Institute of Marine Research, also in Bergen. Since 1980 he has been at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) in Oslo as a Research Scientist in marine environmental issues. He has also held positions as Head of the NIVA Marine Department (1991-1995), Head of NIVA Marine Research Station Solbergstrand (1989-2000) and Research Manager for Industry and Oil and Gas (1985-2013).

During 2008-2011 he held a part-time position as Associate Professor in marine biology at the University of Oslo. His main field of research is fate and effects of oil hydrocarbons on marine organisms and communities where his research focus has been on physiological responses of invertebrates to hydrocarbons and other stressors, the environmental impact of oil-based and synthetic drill cuttings, and development of large scale experimental ecosystems (mesocosms) for research on the degradation and effects of oil and drill cuttings. His experience also covers long term chemical and biological monitoring in rocky shore and soft sediment ecosystems, environmental impact and risk assessments of industrial activities, and offshore environmental management. Since 1987 he has been leader of the Norwegian Expert Group on the Evaluation of Environmental Monitoring around Offshore Fields. He has been member of several independent review groups for offshore decommissioning projects including the UKOOA Drill Cuttings Initiative, the ConocoPhillips Ekofisk Tank, BP’s Northwest Hutton platform and, currently, the Shell Brent Field Decommissioning.

Professor Jan de Leeuw,

Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and University of Utrecht

Jan de Leeuw is a senior research scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Texel, The Netherlands. He is also a guest Professor at the University of Utrecht in Organic Geochemistry in the Department of Geosciences, and guest Professor of Molecular Biogeology in the Department of Biology. He holds an honorary doctorate and professorship in Geochemistry at the University of Cataluña, Spain. He has been a department head and Director at NIOZ, Chair of the Partnership for the Observation of the Global Oceans(POGO), a Member of the Executive Committee of the European Marine Board and has participated in many other international committees. Professor de Leeuw is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW), a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion and has published over 500 research papers, 20 of which have been in Nature and two in Science. A biogeochemist, his current research is focused on the identification of biomarkers and associated proxies to reconstruct palӕo-environments and palӕo-climate change.

Professor Karen Wiltshire,

Alfred Wegener Institute and Jacobs University Bremen

Karen Wiltshire joined Germany’s State Polar and Marine Institute – the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) – in 2001. In 2006 following the offer of a professorship at the University of Oldenburg she became the Vice-Director of the AWI and Speaker of Coastal and Shelf Sea Research. She is Head of the Biological Station on Helgoland and the Wadden Sea Station on Sylt. Her expertise encompasses research areas ranging from marine ecology in changing temperate and polar shelf seas through new technologies, to impact of wind parks on marine ecosystems. She is an editor and author of numerous books and over 150 papers. Her specific research interests are in microalgal ecology and Long Term Data. As Professor for Marine Geosciences at the Jacobs University of Bremen, she supervises BSc, MSc and PhD students and teaches courses ranging from marine chemistry to benthic ecology.

Professor Henk Brinkhuis,

Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and University of Utrecht

Prof. Dr. Henk Brinkhuis took office as general director of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in October 2011. He earned his Masters degree in marine geology and biostratigraphy/ paleoceanography from Utrecht University, with studies in organic geochemistry at Delft Technical University. He received his doctorate in Eocene-Oligocene marine geology, micropaleontology and paleoceanography from Utrecht University, where he continues to hold the Chair in Marine Palynology and Paleoceanography.

Henk has a strong taste for Phanerozoic extreme climate change and paleoecology. He has co-authored over 125 peer-reviewed scientific publications and co-supervised some 25 PhD students. As a Dutch national representative, Henk is strongly involved in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). He has helped to form many integrated national and international scientific education programmes in palӕo-climatology and palӕo-ecology and served on numerous scientific advisory panels and committees.

Professor John Shepherd,

National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton

Professor John Shepherd CBE FRS is Professorial Research Fellow in Earth System Science in the School of Ocean & Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton. He is a physicist by training, but has worked on a wide range of environmental issues, including the transport of sulphur dioxide in the atmospheric boundary layer, the dispersion of tracers in the deep ocean, the assessment & control of radioactive waste disposal in the sea, the assessment and management of marine fish stocks, and most recently on Earth System Modelling.

His current research interests are in climate change and the natural variability of the climate system on long time-scales, and in the development and application of intermediate complexity models of the Earth climate system, especially for the interpretation of the palaeo-climate record.

From 1989-1994 he was Deputy Director of the MAFF Fisheries Laboratory at Lowestoft, and the principal scientific adviser to the UK government on marine fisheries management. He has been at the University of Southampton since 1994, and from 1994-1999 he was the first Director of what is now the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

He has extensive experience of international scientific assessments and advice in controversial areas such as fisheries management and radioactive waste disposal, as well as climate change, and has taken a particular interest in the interaction between science, economics, and public policy. He was a Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research from 2001 to 2010, and is a former member of the DEFRA Science Advisory Council, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change. He has chaired independent reviews of several offshore decommissioning projects including the NERC review of the Brent Spar, the UKOOA Drill Cuttings Initiative and the BP Northwest Hutton decommissioning, and is currently chair of the Independent Review Group (IRG) for the Shell Brent Decommissioning project. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999, was a member of the Royal Society’s study on Ocean Acidification (2005) and chaired its study on Geoengineering the Climate (2009).

Personal website: www.jgshepherd.com