Speaking: Melody Brown Burkins, Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies
For more than 30 years, the Falmouth Forum, presented by the Friends of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), has brought free cultural enrichment to our community. The Falmouth Forum is supported by the Falmouth Forum Endowment, the Bakalar Endowed Director's Discretionary Fund, and The Falmouth Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation.
Lectures are free and open to the public. Free parking is available in any Marine Biological Laboratory lot. No registration required for in-person attendance. Doors open at 7:00 pm, lectures start at 7:30 pm.
Bio
Melody Brown Burkins is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies, Senior Associate Director in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College. In January 2022, she was also named the UArctic Chair in Science Diplomacy and Inclusion. With more than 30 years of experience as a polar scientist working in academia and governance, she is an advocate for policy-engaged scholarship, experiential education, and the support of science policy and diplomacy initiatives advancing sustainability, inclusion, and gender equality in the Arctic and around the world.
A "science diplomat" for Arctic and global issues, Burkins is a Special Advisor and Assembly Representative to the UArctic global network, an elected member of the Founding Governing Board of the International Science Council, and Past Chair of the U.S. National Academies' Board on International Scientific Organizations. Over the past two years, she has served on the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction Global Assessment Report Advisory Board and UNESCO Global Independent Expert Group on Universities and the 2030 Agenda.
Born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, Burkins' strong personal and professional connections to the North also inform her work to connect Dartmouth students and faculty with opportunities for Arctic scholarship, cooperation, and engagement. She enjoys sharing the experience of developing and leading effective science policy and diplomacy collaborations with colleagues and students in talks, webinars, workshops, and panel discussions.
Burkins earned her B.S. in geology at Yale and both her M.S. and Ph.D. at Dartmouth, focusing her doctoral studies on earth and ecosystem studies in the Antarctic Dry Valleys.