Brian Kinlan, PhD

Brian P. Kinlan was a marine spatial ecologist at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science whose use of predictive habitat modeling advanced how scientists and resource managers locate and protect deep-sea coral ecosystems. Kinlan earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his doctorate in atmospheric science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his dissertation examined the spatial ecology of benthic communities in temperate coastal upwelling zones. He joined NOAA’s NCCOS team and became a leading expert in the statistical, computational, and geospatial tools used to model marine ecosystem dynamics, with a particular focus on deep-sea coral habitats in the Northeast United States. His habitat suitability models, refined through multiple expeditions aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, became a primary tool for guiding exploration efforts and informing fishery management council decisions on protected areas in the Mid-Atlantic region. Kinlan died Jan. 27, 2017. In recognition of his contributions, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially named Kinlan Canyon — a deep-water canyon off the coast of Nantucket — in his honor in 2018. NOAA subsequently dedicated a live dive into the canyon to his memory during the Deep Connections 2019 expedition.