Forty Fort native honored for ocean science leadership

Forty Fort native Kate Moran, described as a pioneer in technological innovation to support ocean and planet sustainability, has been appointed Officer of the Order of Canada.

In a career that spans the United States White House through to her current role as President and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, Moran’s extraordinary contribution has been recognized with her appointment as Officer of the Order of Canada by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada.

The announcement by the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General states Moran is receiving her appointment “for her innovative leadership as a researcher, policy advisor and administrator in ocean engineering and climate action.”

The Order of Canada is one of Canada’s highest honors. It recognizes people across all sectors of society who have made extraordinary and sustained contributions to their nation.

Under Moran’s leadership since 2012, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a University of Victoria initiative, has expanded from observing the Salish Sea to operating world-leading observatories on the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic coasts of Canada, delivering globally accessible data that advances scientific discovery, climate solutions, maritime safety and coastal community resiliency.

“Dr. Kate Moran’s appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada is a well-deserved acknowledgment of her lifetime contributions to science, both nationally and globally,” said Kevin Hall, UVic’s president and vice-chancellor. “Under her leadership as president and CEO, Ocean Networks Canada has become a global force in ocean data, helping us to better understand the ocean and its role in mitigating the effects of climate change, which is necessary for our survival.”

Moran’s sister, Patricia, said they grew up on Center Street in Forty Fort and graduated from Wyoming Valley West.

Moran’s parents, Patrick Al Moran and Catherine Waters Moran, are both deceased.

“Our mother was born in Forty Fort and our parents bought our home in Forty Fort in 1954,” Patricia Moran said.

Kate Moran has two sisters — Molly Munkatchy (resides in New Jersey) and Patricia Moran (resides in Florida) and a brother, Tom, in Wilkes Barre.

Patricia Moran said during the summers, Kate was a lifeguard at the Forty Fort Pool. Kate attended Wyoming Valley West High School and graduated in 1973.

She earned a bachelor degree from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s degree from University of Rhode Island and Ph.D from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia.

According to information provided by the office of the Governor General of Canada, Moran first realized the value of support systems for resiliency at age 17 when Hurricane Agnes roared into her Pennsylvania town, Forty Fort, in June 1972, flooding her family home and destroying all their possessions.

“It was a pretty impactful event for me, a lot of people were displaced for a long time, and it caused billions of dollars in damage,” Moran said. “I saw the importance of government help for recovery, and for alerts and warnings for natural disasters, and we didn’t really have any of that then.”

ONC has developed tsunami, storm-surge and earthquake early-warning systems for the Pacific coast and is now pioneering a geodesy project to measure tectonic plate movement in the ocean.

Resilience at the community level is also a priority for Moran’s ONC, which now supports Indigenous Peoples’ ocean science leadership and partnerships on all three coasts of Canada.

Moran says her experience of co-leading a 2004 expedition of the first scientific drilling in the Arctic Ocean to obtain sediment and rock samples for climate change research was another cornerstone — partly for proving that drilling could occur in the middle of a moving ice-covered ocean, but mostly due to the results of the research.

“We recovered the first paleoclimate record showing that the perennial sea ice that has been in place on the planet for millions of years was going to be gone in a lifetime,” Moran said. “That’s when I realized how bad climate change was, and today why Ocean Networks Canada is working with partners on new ocean-based solutions for adapting to the current impacts of climate change and for removing carbon from the atmosphere to keep the planet habitable for us, and the world rich in biodiversity.”

Before joining ONC, Moran’s previous appointment was professor and associate dean at the University of Rhode Island (URI).

From 2009 to 2011, Moran was seconded to President Obama’s Office of Science and Technology Policy where she served as an assistant director and focused on Arctic, polar, ocean, climate policy, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, where she said, “we stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.”

Moran first moved to Canada in 1982 to take a job with the Geological Survey of Canada’s Atlantic Geoscience Centre at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography after graduating as an ocean engineer from URI.

In 1995, she gained her PhD from Dalhousie University and became a Canadian citizen during that period.

“I am honored to be appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada as this is a wonderful recognition of the work I have been privileged to do and hope to continue,” Moran said. “Being responsible for public dollars means you should maximize that investment to the benefit of as many people as possible, and that is where my motivation lies.”

Moran is a registered professional engineer and professor at UVic’s Faculty of Science, a fellow of the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers, a fellow of the Canadian Geographic Society, and was selected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow for the class of 2022.