Denise Smythe-Wright
SCOR Executive Committee (IAPSO)

Denise Smythe-Wright retired as Principal Scientist at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), United Kingdom in 2013 and is now a Visiting Scientist at the Centre. She was elected President of the International Association of the Physical Sciences of the Oceans in June 2015. Denise gained her PhD in estuarine chemistry from the University of Liverpool in 1978 and continued this work through a NERC Personal Postdoctoral Fellowship at Southampton University until 1980 when she moved to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, UK. Here she became involved in the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and was Secretary of the International WOCE Executive and UK WOCE Project Manager for 7 years. During this time she turned her research attention from trace metals to anthropogenic and natural trace gases, initially as tracers of ocean circulation, moving to planktonic release and the impact on atmospheric chemistry and climate change. This led to an interest in phytoplankton distribution and the impact of climate and environmental change on oceanic community structure, harmful algal blooms, anthropogenic carbon uptake and automated equipment and systems design and development. Before her semi-retirement, Smythe-Wright was the leader of the NERC Sustained Observations Programme (2007-2012) and became involved in the transfer of scientific knowledge to address societal needs. She was a member of the SCOR/IAPSO OceanScope WG and the UK National Centre for Ocean Forecasting Executive Committee, and presently sits on two committees of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Since 1978 she has been an Associate Lecturer at the Open University (UK) teaching oceanography and general science. She has participated in 21 research cruises worldwide and is still an active scientist, publishing more than a dozen papers in refereed journals during the past decade.