Mary O'Connor

Mary O'Connor is a Professor at the Department of Zoology within the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on the ecological dimensions of global change, particularly the effects of warming, biodiversity shifts, and invasive species on marine systems. She leads the O'Connor Lab and collaborates with cross-sector partnerships for biodiversity change detection.

• Education: Brown University (B.S., Aquatic Biology, 2000), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Ph.D., Ecology, 2008), and Postdoc at NCEAS.

Her research integrates temperature-dependent metabolic theory with empirical studies on trophic interactions, larval dispersal, and marine community structure. Recent work explores blue carbon reserves in Canadian seagrass systems and thermal adaptation in phytoplankton.

Scientific awards include:

• Wall Research Team Faculty Award (2024)
• Distinguished University Scholar (2023)
• Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2020)
• NSERC Steacie Prize (2019)

She investigates how temperature variation affects species interactions, ecosystem processes, and human-seafood relationships. Her lab includes researchers like D. Anderson and A. Ebersole, with funding from NSERC and the Peter Wall Endowment.