Dr. Anna Redden is a marine ecologist and professor in Biology, with degrees from Acadia University (BScHon, MSc) and Memorial University (PhD). Her postdoctoral work was conducted in Australia, after which she was appointed to a faculty position at Newcastle University, Australia. She returned to Nova Scotia and to Acadia University in 2005 to the positions of Associate Professor in Biology and Director of the Acadia Centre for Estuarine Research. Dr. Redden served as Dean (and then Associate Vice-President) of Research, Innovation and Graduate Studies from 2017-2023. She is currently the Director of Environmental Interactions with the Acadia Tidal Energy Institute.
Anna has over 35 years of research experience working on a broad range of environmental topics and effects monitoring in coastal waters. This includes environmental studies at the former Tidal Power Generating Station in Annapolis Royal, and research with tidal energy project developers in high flow passages in the Bay of Fundy. Her activities with collaborators and students at Acadia have largely focused on understanding how marine fish and other animals utilize high flow, tidal environments. Anna is currently leading an NRCan-funded project ($2.6M; 2025-2028) that will apply tagging technology advanced for high flow sites to build strong datasets on the temporal and spatial presence of fish passing through the Minas Passage and FORCE tidal energy development area. This data, coupled with fish movement and tidal turbine models, will inform assessments of fish-turbine collision risk.
Dr. Redden was the co-founder and co-executive chair of the Fundy Energy Research Network (FERN), established in 2009 to assist the province, FORCE, the emerging tidal energy industry and the research community in working collaboratively to address a range of environmental, engineering and socio-economic needs and challenges. In 2011, she co-founded the Acadia Tidal Energy Institute and she has served as Director or co-Director since that time.
Anna was one of the founding directors on the Board of the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE; 2009-2016) and served as a director on the Board of the Offshore Energy Research Association of Nova Scotia (2017-2022). She also served as the Canadian lead on the International Ocean Energy Agency’s Ocean Energy Systems Initiative: Annex IV (Environmental Effects of MRE) from 2014-2017.