Born: 15 August 1923, Dovercourt, UK

Died: 24 January 2010, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Field: Marine Ecology

Dr. Mann was associated with the Zoology Department at Reading University (1954-1966) and his biological research soon led him to studies on aquatic ecosystems. He received a research grant to study the ecosystem energy-flow of the Thames River as a part of the International Biological Programme (IBP) and this enabled him to observe web structure and function in different aquatic systems. In 1967, a year after Canada became a member of the IBP, he immigrated to Canada and accepted a position at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO), Marine Ecology Laboratory, as the Head of Biological Oceanography. His research was to measure and model marine production of multiple trophic levels from plankton and benthos to fish in St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia. His research provided the first quantitative data to show that macrophytes were an important source of dissolved and particulate organic material providing energy for coastal marine food webs. He was Professor and Chairman of Biology at Dalhousie University from 1972-1980 and from 1980-1987 was the Director of the Marine Ecology Laboratory at BIO. Dr. Mann received a D.Sc. from the University of London, an honorary doctorate from Cape Breton University, and was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (1995). He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Photo credit: Colin Mann and Gulf of Maine Times