Melody Brown Burkins is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth, where she also serves as Senior Associate Director in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies.
Trained as a polar scientist, she focuses on issues of Arctic and global science diplomacy, climate change, sustainable development, and inclusion. In UArctic, she serves as Special Advisor and Assembly Member, is Vice Lead to the Model Arctic Council (MAC) Thematic Network, and is a founding member of the UArctic Gender in Arctic Knowledge Production Thematic Network.
Dr. Burkins also holds a variety of international positions that advance Arctic and global science cooperation, inclusion, and sustainability in global science governance. She is as an elected member of the International Science Council (ISC) Governing Board, Chair of the US National Academies’ Board on International Scientific Organizations (NASEM-BISO), and recently served as a scientific advisor to the 2021 ISC report, Unleashing Science: Delivering Missions for Sustainability.
She also serves on the Global Independent Expert Group on Universities and the 2030 Agenda (EGU2030) convened by UNESCO and the University of Bergen and the Advisory Board to the 2022 UN Disaster Risk Reduction Global Assessment Report (UNDRR-GAR) addressing global systemic risk. Most recently, she was appointed to the 4th International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV) Steering Committee, for which she is honored to help support more meaningful Arctic collaborations and the engagement and inclusion of more diverse knowledge systems in global research strategies for the next International Polar Year (IPY).
UArctic Chairs are highly qualified academics who serve as academic drivers in a broad area of relevance to the Arctic. They implement and drive collaborative actions in research and education among UArctic members and Thematic Networks and build partnerships with the broader Arctic community.