Prof Karen Stockin is a Rutherford Discovery Fellow (2019-2024) and the current Chair of the Society for Marine Mammalogy Ethics Committee. As Research Lead for CERG since 2009, she is also an Associate Investigator of the Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre and WILDBASE. Prof Stockin was the inaugural Strandings Coordinator (2018-2020) for the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and presently serves on the IWC Strandings Initiative Expert Panel and as a member of the IWC Scientific Committee. Additional international duties include Prof Stockin’s membership of the ASCOBANS Prey Depletion Working Group and IWC Extinction Initiative. In Dec 2019, Prof Stockin further co-chaired the launch of the Global Strandings Network during the World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Prof Stockin is currently the Associate Editor for The Journal for Cetacean Research & Management.
Prof Stockin’s research interests interface animal welfare science, ethology and veterinary pathology and are particularly focused on human impacts that affect cetacean populations. Previous research has focused on the impacts of marine mammal tourism and persistent contaminants. Currently, Prof Stockin’s Rutherford Discovery Fellowship focuses on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), innovative technologies and evolutionary theory to address the conservation-welfare nexus during human-wildlife interactions. This work commenced in 2017 under Prof Stockin's inaugural Bob Kerridge Animal Welfare Fellowship and is further funded by Animal Ethics (2019-2020).
Prof Stockin is on the Executive Committee of Women In Marine Mammal Science and is also the Professional Sponsor of the Australia/New Zealand Chapter of The Society for Marine Mammalogy. Throughout her career, she has supervised to successful completion, a total of 18 postgraduates (11 PhD & 7 MSc) and is currently the primary supervisor of 3 PhD students (Rebecca Boys, Beth Hinton and Emily Palmer) and one MSc student (Déborah Casano-Bally) as well as the co-supervisor of PhD students Penny Clarke and Jordan Housiaux.
