Dawn R. Bazely


Dawn R. Bazely is a full professor in biology in the Faculty of Science, and the former Director of the Institute for Research Innovation in Sustainability, at York University in Canada. In 2015 she was awarded the title of University Professor for services to research, teaching, and the institution. Bazely has been a field biologist for forty years and her research specializes in plant-animal interactions in ecology. She has also been recognized for her science communication.
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Early life and education

Bazely was born in India, and moved as a toddler to England, United Kingdom.
She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biogeography and environmental studies at the University of Toronto. She then completed a Master's degree in botany, under the supervision of Robert L. Jefferies, at the University of Toronto. Her MSc thesis investigated the impact of grazing by Anser caerulescens caerulescens on the Hudson Bay shores' salt-marsh vegetation. She then completed her D.Phil. in zoology, at the Edward Grey Institute in Field Ornithology, at the University of Oxford in 1998. supervised by John R. Krebs; she investigated sheep grazing behaviour.

Career

Bazely then held an Ernest Cook Research Fellowship at Somerville College of the University of Oxford, followed by a Trevelyan Research Fellowship at Selwyn College of the University of Cambridge. In 1990, she returned to Canada to join York University's biology department as a faculty member.
file:Charles Krebs and Dawn Bazely at Judy Myers' retirement celebration in 2007.jpg|thumb|Bazely speaking to Charles Krebs at the retirement of colleague Judith H. Myers in 2007
She was York University's Director of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability from 2006 to 2011 and 2012–14. In this role, she developed expertise in sustainability, science policy and environmental security, and expanded her research focus. Currently, Bazely is a University Professor within York University's faculty of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Research

Bazely's research lab focuses on ecology, and broader issues of sustainability, as well as exploring intersections with science policy, open access, citizen science, and science communication. She has published over 70 academic publications, as well as books and book chapters, resulting in over 2,000 citations and an h-index of 26.

Teaching

In 2003, Bazely received York University's Faculty of Science and Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2013, she was awarded York University's President's University-Wide Teaching Awards, in the senior full-time faculty category, in recognition of time spent on preparing and innovating the courses she teaches. Bazely was also recognized as a "Hotshot Professor" in the Globe and Mail's 2014 Canadian University Report. In a The Washington Post editorial, Bazely writes that she uses editing Wikipedia pages as a tool to teach her students the skills of HTML-style coding. Bazely also co-sponsors a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at York University.

Public engagement and science communication

In 2015, Bazely co-founded York University's Annual International Ada Lovelace Day with York University's Science and Engineering Librarian, John Dupuis. In July 2018, she was an invited speaker for a science communication panel at the 2018 Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Annual Meeting, where she spoke about communicating science to policy makers.

Awards

Selected academic publications

  • Bazely DR, and Jefferies RL. "Goose faeces: a source of nitrogen for plant growth in a grazed salt marsh". The Journal of Ecology, 693–703. 1985.
  • Bazely DR and Jefferies RL. "Changes in the composition and standing crop of salt-marsh communities in response to the removal of a grazer." The Journal of Ecology, 693–706. 1986.
  • Vicari M and Bazely DR. "Do grasses fight back? The case for antiherbivore defences." Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 8, 137–141. 1993.
  • McLachlan SM and Bazely DR. "Recovery patterns of understory herbs and their use as indicators of deciduous forest regeneration." Conservation Biology 15, 98–110. 2001.
  • Koh S, Vicari M, Ball JP, Rakocevic T, Zaheer S, Hik DS and Bazely DR. "Rapid detection of fungal endophytes in grasses for large‐scale studies." Functional Ecology 20, 736–742. 2006.
  • Tanentzap AJ, Bazely DR and Lafortezza R. "Diversity–invasibility relationships across multiple scales in disturbed forest understoreys." Biological Invasions 12, 2105–2116. 2010.
  • Bazel DR, Perkins PE, Duailibi M and Klenk, N. "Strengthening Resilience by Thinking of Knowledge as a Nutrient Connecting the Local Person to Global Thinking." Planetary Praxis & Pedagogy, 119–132. 2015.
  • Bazely DR, Dubreuil A and Nanayakkara L. "How the unconference approach can increase stakeholder engagement." Revista Vínculos 3. 2018.

Selected books