The Observer, July 2007
Volunteer Profile: Committee member is an international seal expert
By Susan Sommer
How does a mammal make a living in the ocean? That was the overarching question for Jennifer Burns as she made her way through college studying marine biology. Now an associate professor of biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Burns is an expert on how seals and other marine mammals survive.
She’s been sharing that expertise as a member of the council’s Scientific Advisory Committee, or SAC, for about a year.
Jennifer Burns’s work has taken her to Antarctica, left, and to the sea ice of the Alaskan Arctic. Photos courtesy of Jennifer Burns.
Like many council volunteers, Burns learned about the council by word of mouth. Her husband, Chris, works in the oil-spill-response industry with John LeClair, a volunteer on another council committee. One of Burns’s fellow professors, John Kennish, is a SAC member. Both LeClair and Kennish urged her to join.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, Burns made her way north in the mid-1990s to study marine biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the “best place,” she says, “to do work in marine mammal research.” She fell in love with the Fairbanks summers, and managed to avoid the harshest winter months by heading south—all the way to Antarctica. There, she researched the diving behavior of Weddell seal pups, which are born on the sea ice in October, during the Antarctic spring. While it wasn’t much above freezing in McMurdo Sound, it was warmer than Fairbanks and had more daylight.
She lives in Eagle River with Chris and two enthusiastic husky/blue heelers named Buster and Roo. Their house sits on the edge of Chugach State Park, meaning occasional glimpses of wildlife and plenty of opportunity for adventure, usually with the companionship of the dogs.
Her position at UAA includes teaching and research, and she works with undergraduate students in the classroom and in the laboratory.
An important part of her job is mentoring graduate students. “I teach them how to be scientists,” Burns says, blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “I help raise them to a professional level.”
Burns earned a bachelor of science in marine biology and zoology in 1990 from the University of California Berkeley; a master of science in fisheries in 1993 from the University of Washington; and a Ph.D. in marine biology in 1997 from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was a post-doctoral research associate from 1997-2000 at the University of California Santa Cruz. She began teaching in Alaska in 2000 as an assistant professor.
Volunteering on the Scientific Advisory Committee gives Burns a different perspective on how science can work in the community. She likes the change of pace from teaching, and the immediacy of results from actions of SAC. In the research end of science, getting results may take years.
Burns brings to the committee a practical knowledge of how scientific research is conducted. She understands the proposal process and the most efficient way to turn an idea into reality.
Besides teaching and conducting research, Burns has published many papers on how seals and sea lions are able to make a living by foraging underwater. Her presentations at conferences around the world, including in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Monaco, Italy, Botswana, and South Africa, cover such topics as physiological development in juvenile harbor seals, and modeling the nutritional relationships between fish and marine mammal populations in Alaska. Next year, she’ll be attending a conference in Namibia.
“Africa’s parks are really neat, and the wild animals are amazing to see,” says Burns, who always tries to find time for personal adventures when traveling for work.