John Durban
Senior Scientist
John is a population ecologist who has researched marine mammals for almost 30 years to support conservation in the U.S. and overseas. John began researching Southern Resident killer whales off Washington State as a teenager, focusing on population dynamics for his Ph.D. studies at the University of Aberdeen in the U.K., before extending his killer whale research to Alaska and Antarctica during 17 years of working with NOAA’s Alaska and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers. John is now an Associate Professor with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, and he continues his research on Southern Resident killer whales and killer whales in Antarctica as an associate Senior Scientist with SR³. John’s primary research involves combining photographic mark-recapture for population assessment with drone-derived photogrammetry to monitor individual whale health.