Carolyn W. Burns

Dame Carolyn Waugh Burns (born 3 February 1942) is a New Zealand ecologist specialising in lakes. She is an emeritus professor at the University of Otago.

Early life, family, and education Burns was born in Lincoln, New Zealand, the daughter of Ruth Alvina Burns (née Waugh) and Malcolm McRae Burns, an agricultural scientist. She was educated at Christchurch Girls' High School, before studying zoology at the University of Canterbury, from where she graduated Bachelor of Science with first-class honours in 1962. She completed a PhD at the University of Toronto in 1966, with her thesis titled The feeding behaviour of Daphnia under natural conditions.

Academic career After a period working as a research associate in biology at Yale University from 1967 to 1968, Burns returned to New Zealand to take up a lectureship in zoology at the University of Otago.

Burns was a member of the Nature Conservation Council from 1975 to 1990, including five years as chairman between 1978 and 1983.

Awards and honours In the 1984 Queen's Birthday Honours, Burns was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to conservation. In 1990, she was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In 2017, Burns received the Marsden Medal from the New Zealand Association of Scientists. The same year, Burns was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.

Selected works