2nd December 2009
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Nicholas J P Owens (Nick)
Nick is a marine biologist by training having studied at the Liverpool University Marine Biological Station, Port Erin, Isle of Man for his first degree and PhD studies at the University of Dundee, under the supervision of Prof. W.D.P. Stewart FRS, who later became Government Chief Scientist.
Nick was then employed at the then relatively newly created Institute for Marine Environmental Research (IMER) in Plymouth. IMER was re-named the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in 1988 where he remained until 1993. In September 1993 Nick took the position of Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of Newcastle and head of Department (1994-1999) until 2000. During this time Nick was a member of many NERC Committees.
In 2000 Nick became Director of PML - then a component of NERC's Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences (CCMS). CCMS was very soon disbanded and Nick, with a valiant and dedicated senior team, took PML out of NERC ownership to create an independent organisation within the NERC family. A fully commercial trading subsidiary was also created in order to maximise diversity of funding and provide a vehicle for exploitation and spin-out of research. Nick became Director of BAS in September 2007.
Nick's research interests as a biological oceanographer are primarily in the field of biogeochemical cycling, especially the nitrogen cycle and the production and consumption of biogases. He has spent over three years of his career at sea on a variety of research ships, large and small, in almost all of the world's oceans.
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