Sheila JJ Heymans

Sheila JJ Heymans is the Executive Director of the European Marine Board (EMB), the leading European marine science policy think tank, Professor in Ecosystem Modelling at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) in Scotland, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in the UK.

She has 30 years’ experience in research on the environmental impacts of ecosystem change and has published > 90 peer-reviewed publications on these topics. Previously she was the Head of the Science Department (2016-2017), Head of the Ecology Department (2013-2016) and Leader of the “People and the Sea” research theme (2012-2013) at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).

Sheila is Vice-Chair of the EOOS Steering Group, sits on the Ecopath Consortium Board, on the External Expert Identification Committee of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada, and on the Advisory Boards of various EU projects including Blue Cloud 2026, Mission Atlantic, MarinePlan, NECCTON, among others. She has previously been part of various ICES Working Groups (WKIRISH, WGCOMEDA, etc.) as well as the International Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) where she was a lead author on the chapter: “Policy support tools and methodologies for scenario analysis and modelling of biodiversity and ecosystem services”. She is the editor of EMB Policy documents, (see http://www.marineboard.eu/publications) and her scientific publications are here.