University academic features in the 2026 ENDS Power List

Professor Melanie Austen is one of only 10 academics named among the people making the greatest impact on the UK environmental sector

University academic features in the 2026 ENDS Power List

Professor Melanie Austen is one of only 10 academics named among the people making the greatest impact on the UK environmental sector

Mr Alan Williams

Media and Communications Manager

Corporate Communications (Marketing and Communications)

5 June 2026

A University of Plymouth academic has been named among the 100 people to have made the greatest impact on the UK environmental sector over the past two years.

Professor Melanie Austen, Professor of Ocean and Society in our School of Biological and Marine Sciences, is one of only 10 academics featured in the 2026 ENDS Power List.

Her inclusion acknowledges the global impact and influence of her research career, which has focused on holistic, systems-thinking approaches to sustainable ecosystems in the UK and internationally for well over two decades.

It also reflects the leadership she provides at a national level through her role as President of the British Ecological Society (BES) – a learned society with more than 8,000 members in over 130 countries – and other high-profile appointments.

I feel honoured and humbled to be recognised among amazing people who do so much for the environment and the people who depend on it. It is also immensely inspiring and will encourage me to continue using and promoting holistic thinking to address many of the key issues facing our planet.

If we are to counter environmental, ecological and climate deterioration, we need to use transdisciplinary approaches to understand the issues and seek solutions for positive and restorative change from science, societal, economic and health perspectives. We also have to train and support others to do the same, and I will continue doing everything I can to facilitate those goals.

Professor Melanie Austen
Professor of Ocean and Society

Professor Austen’s research has included extensive work – in the UK, Europe and South East Asia among other places – on natural capital, ecosystem services, and the relationship between the environment and human health and behaviour.

She has blended natural science, social science and economics to examine how marine ecosystems are used and governed across sectors of the blue economy, including fisheries, renewable energy, aquaculture, tourism and marine pollution.

Alongside this work, Professor Austen leads the UKRI NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources (CDT SuMMeR), training the next generation of researchers and practitioners to consider marine management problems from a transdisciplinary perspective.

Outside the University, in addition to her current role with the British Ecological Society, she has been a board member of UK Government agencies such as Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). She was also the first chief scientific adviser to the Marine Management Organisation, and chairs the Partnership Group for the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in North Devon.

The ENDS Power List is published annually, and all of 2026’s successful nominees were proposed for nomination by their colleagues, clients and competitors, then selected by ENDS and a panel of experts.

Their inclusion acknowledges their work to shape or influence national or local environmental policy, enhance the reputation of the environmental profession, deliver demonstrable and positive environmental improvements, and set a new benchmark for environmental professionalism.

Mr Alan Williams

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