Christine Adair Maggs (born 8 June 1956) is a British phycologist.[5] Formerly Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Technology at Bournemouth University,[1] she was the first Chief Scientist of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, retiring in 2022. She is now an independent non-executive Director of Ocean Harvest Technology.[6]
Maggs worked as a postdoc at the Atlantic Research Laboratory, Nova Scotia, Canada and Queen's University Belfast (the latter on an Advanced Natural Environment Research Council Fellowship), before taking up a post as a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast in 1995. Her main research interests are molecular systematics of seaweeds with particular interests in alien marine algae and plants,[7] biological conservation, and sustainable seaweed exploitation. The majority of her publications focus on red algae (Rhodophyta),[8][9] although she has also published on brown algae[10] and green algae, notably showing that Linnaeus was correct in his assertion that the genera Ulva and Enteromorpha were not distinct.[11] She has described two new orders (Ahnfeltiales[12] and Atractophorales[8]) of alga, and three new families (Ahnfeltiaceae,[12] Atractophoraceae,[8] and Haemeschariaceae[13]). She has published over a hundred peer-reviewed scientific papers.[14]
She has written three books on seaweeds: Seasearch Guide to Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland,[15]Green seaweeds of Britain and Ireland,[16] and Seaweeds of the British Isles.[17]
Editorial work
Professor Maggs has been the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Phycology for 20 years (1994-2004; joint Editor-in-Chief from 2010) and is a Managing Editor of the new BPS journal Applied Phycology, with Prof. Juliet Brodie and Editor-in-Chief Prof. John Beardall.[18] She was Associate Editor of Journal of Biogeography from 2007-2014,[19][20] Associate Editor of Journal of Phycology (2009–10),[21][22] and from 1991-1993 she was Associate Editor of Phycologia,[23][24][25] the bi-monthly journal of the International Phycological Society.
Diversity work
Professor Maggs led the Queen's University Belfast School of Biological Sciences application for an Athena SWAN Gold Award.[26] This successful application made Queen's University Belfast the recipient of only the third departmental Athena SWAN Gold award.[27] In 2017, Professor Maggs was awarded the British Ecological Society Equality and Diversity Champion award.[28]
^Wilce, R.T. & Maggs, C.A. (1989). "Reinstatement of the genus Haemescharia (Rhodophyta, Haemeschariaceae fam. nov.) for H. polygyna and H. hennedyi comb. nov. (=Petrocelis hennedyi)". Canadian Journal of Botany. 67 (5): 1465–1479. doi:10.1139/b89-196.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Bunker, F., Brodie, J.A, Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. (210). Seasearch Guide to Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland. Marine Conservation Society.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Brodie, J., Maggs, C.A. & John, D.M. (Eds) (2007). Green seaweeds of Britain and Ireland. London: British Phycological Society. ISBN9780952711537.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Maggs, C.A. & Hommersand, M.H. (1993). Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1 Rhodophyta, Part 3A Ceramiales. London: Natural History Museum/HMSO. ISBN978-1907807718.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Editorial board". European Journal of Phycology. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
