OPP welcomes Dr. Penny Vlahos as program director for the Arctic Natural Sciences program

The Office of Polar Programs is pleased to welcome Dr. Penny Vlahos as a program director for the Arctic Natural Sciences program. Vlahos trained as an undergraduate in chemical engineering at the University of Toronto and did her masters in environmental engineering, also at the University of Toronto. She completed her doctoral studies in oceanography at the University of Massachusetts environmental, coastal and ocean sciences program before going to the University of Connecticut.

Vlahos has been a Fulbright Specialist in Sri Lanka (University of Peradeniya), Columbia (University of Cartagena), and Switzerland (ETH), and is currently on the U.S. pool of experts to the United Nations Second World Oceans Assessment Report. She was elected to the board of the International Panel on Chemical Pollution (IPCP) and was elected as the Connecticut chair and co-chair of the Long Island Sound Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). Vlahos is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (CAAS), the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).