Dr. Colette Wabnitz named a Falling Walls Foundation’s Women’s Impact Award winner

Dr. Colette Wabnitz, research associate with UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF), and lead researcher at Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions, has been named as one of the three winners of the Women’s Impact Award. This award is given by the Falling Walls Foundation, with its partners, the Elsevier Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation, and recognises outstanding projects that advance gender equity and generate meaningful societal impact for women and girls.

Dr. Wabnitz is an interdisciplinary marine scientist whose research focuses on understanding how socio-ecological systems respond to change, and in co-creating strategies to optimize resilience that are equitable and sustainable, with a particular focus on developing economies in the Global South. She collaborates with local communities, governments and organizations to co-develop practical, inclusive policy tools to make fisheries and food systems more equitable and sustainable.

Her project focuses on gender equity in fisheries, and highlights women in global fisheries; co-creating fact sheets, policy analyses and workshops to advance gender equity and ocean justice.

The three winners have been invited to present their projects to an international audience during the Female Science Talents International Fall Gathering and the Falling Walls Award Ceremony taking place on November 9, 2025 in Berlin, Germany.

Tags: awards, Colette Wabnitz, honours, IOF Research Associates