Features Sustainability Water Issues
Simon Courtenay lands new role with CWN

Nov. 15, 2013, Waterloo, ON – Dr. Simon Courtenay was appointed as the Canadian Water Network’s (CWN) new scientific director.

As scientific director, Courtenay will lead the development of a network of innovative researchers, practitioners and implementers focused on providing clean, safe and sustainable water across Canada and internationally.

“Simon brings a wealth of experience from both government and academia,” said Peter Steblin, chair of CWN’s board of directors, in a press release. “He has been involved with CWN in many capacities, including serving on the management committee of the Canadian Watershed Research Consortium and as a principal researcher. I am very pleased to welcome Simon to the CWN team in the role of Scientific Director and look forward to working with him.”

Dr. Kelly Munkittrick was the previous scientific director.

Courtenay also transitioned into a new role as professor in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo this fall. He spent the past 24 years as a DFO research scientist co-located at the Canadian Rivers Institute in the Biology Department of the University of New Brunswick Fredericton and the Gulf Fisheries Centre in Moncton, NB.

He is interested in the plants and animals found in estuaries and how human activities affect estuarine ecology. Courtenay’s group works with the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Coalition on Sustainability to manage the Community Aquatic Monitoring Program (CAMP), a beach-seining program undertaken during the summer months by environmental groups in 35 estuaries and bays of the southern Gulf of St.
Lawrence. Started in 2003, CAMP has now become DFO’s major contribution to the Northumberland Strait – Environmental Monitoring Partnership, which is funded by the CWN as one of several geographic nodes in the Canadian Watershed Research Consortium.

Courtenay received a BSc in Zoology in 1980 and an MSc in Zoology in 1982, both from the University of Western Ontario. He completed a PhD in 1989 in Zoology at the University of British Columbia.

The CWN was created in 2001 by the Networks of Centres of Excellence Program to connect international water researchers with decision-makers engaged in priority water management issues.