Jacqueline M. McGlade (born U.K.) is a leading marine biologist and environmental informatics professor. Her research focusses on the spatial and nonlinear dynamics of ecosystems, climate change and scenario development.
She is the current Executive Director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, Denmark. Following this appointment, she took leave from her post as Professor of Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London.
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Professor McGlade completed her BSc in Marine Biology, Biochemistry and Soil Science at the University College of North Wales, UK, in 1977. She obtained her PhD degree in 1980 on aquatic sciences and zoology from the University of Guelph in Canada. In 1987, she obtained a MA degree from the University of Cambridge in the UK.
McGlade’s PhD research on the mathematical and statistical analysis of the phenotypic and genotypic variability showed the critical importance of spatial dynamics in determining evolutionary divergence and ecological sustainability in freshwater and marine fish populations. This work led to her establishing the first population dynamics and genetics laboratory in Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Her subsequent research at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography laboratory helped move existing fisheries assessment methodologies from logistic models of population growth to spatially extended predator-prey, or Lotka-Volterra type models. She has also created the basis for a new research activity to become established at the Bedford Institute in spatial modelling and artificial intelligence to apply space-based observations to biological oceanography.
After developing fleet deployment models at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the USA) and working on ecological networks with researchers at the intelligence systems laboratory at Xerox PARC, Professor McGlade continued her research in systematics, ichthyology and population dynamics in Cambridge as the Adrian Fellow at Darwin College during the period 1987-1990. At the same time, she expanded her research in coastal issues at the International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Study in the Netherlands and the Cranfield Institute in the UK, where she worked to develop spatial models for environmental issues.
From 1988 onwards, Professor McGlade focussed her research on theoretical ecology to study short and long-term changes in ecosystems at FZ Jülich research centre and RWTH Aachen University in Germany. She and her research staff applied their knowledge of dynamical systems, especially in the area of spatial dynamics (differential equations, coupled-map lattices, cellular automata and individual based models) to study the behaviour ecosystems.
In 1992, she accepted a post at the University of Warwick. The ideas and theories developed during the following ten years led to significant insights into the role of evolutionarily stable attractors, invasion exponents and phenotype dynamics in a wide range of ecosystems, including the African savannah, marine communities, annual and perennial plants and forests and red grouse.
She was briefly Director of NERC's Center for Coastal and Marine Science, resigning after less than two years in post with the Centre being disbanded shortly after[1]
With her appointment as NERC Professorial Fellow at University College London in 2000, her work field extended to environmental policy in areas as diverse as waste, pollution, air quality and biodiversity.
She is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering.[2]
Professor McGlade was appointed Executive Director to the European Environment Agency in 2003 for a five-year term. The appointment was renewed in May 2008 for a second term.
At the EEA, Professor McGlade has introduced a fundamental shift in the thinking behind environmental reporting and indicator development towards a shared European spatial environmental information system. Such information system would bring together key aspects of national and international research outputs including those from the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative.
Under her leadership, the Agency is reinforcing its capability to produce integrated environmental assessments, analysing the state of Europe’s environment as a whole, and provide reliable projections. Professor McGlade has worked to strengthen the link between science and policy. She has not only pointed at the magnitude of climate change but also urged policymakers to start developing and applying adaptation measures.
She is also a firm advocate of informing and involving the public in all aspects of the environment. To this end, she has been striving at strengthening the information and feedback channels between researchers, public and policymakers, and making environmental information understandable and accessible through technological media.
In conjunction with her role at the EEA, she is playing an active role in promoting environmental issues in European and international fora, including various UN committees, European Agencies and Environment Protection Agencies networks, and as well as a number of research, institutional and non-governmental advisory committees.