Katriona Shea

Katriona Shea is a British-American ecologist. She is the endowed Alumni Chair of Biology Science at Eberly College of Science, Pennsylvania State University.

Education Shea studied physics at New College, Oxford, and graduated in 1990.

Research and career After completing her PhD, Shea joined University of California, Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral researcher working with Robert Nisbet and Bill Murdoch. In 1999 she returned to California, working at University of California, Santa Cruz with Marc Mangel. She explored decision theory in conservation biology.

In 2001 Shea was appointed Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University. She became a professor in 2011. She helps conservation efforts as well as the control of invasive diseases and pests. She has worked in rainforests in Guyana and the Serengeti National Park. She worked with Matthew Ferrari on adaptive management to combine scientific understanding with policy development. She has studied the way to manage populations during the Ebola outbreaks. They used adaptive management to retrospectively study measles outbreaks. She demonstrated that speedy interventions by policymakers can limit the health and cost impact of outbreaks. Shea has contributed to The Conversation and Science.

Awards and honors 2018 Named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2011 Pennsylvania State University Dean's Climate and Diversity Award 2004 Pennsylvania State University Edward D. Bellis Award