Verena Tunnicliffe is awarded the David H. Turpin Gold Medal for Career Achievement in Research

Over the course of her 36-year career, internationally renowned marine biologist Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe has combined an unquenchable passion for ocean discovery with a lifelong quest to understand the diversity, connectivity and survival of marine communities in oceans around the world.

She has led or joined over 50 deep-sea expeditions and discovered over 80 new species, including nine named in her honour. Her drive to make the ocean realm accessible to everyone led to the world-leading VENUS subsea observatory (now part of Ocean Networks Canada), which she led for 11 years. Her current work is focused on ocean conservation issues related to marine protected areas, biodiversity and deep-sea mining.