2021 Dell Awardee - Di Tracey

Di Tracey, a deep-sea fisheries and ecology scientist at NIWA, has a strong history of advocacy for and mentoring of women working in science during her 40+ year career.

Di began her career working for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF), where she spent a lot of time at sea on research and commercial fishing vessels helping estimate fisheries abundance e.g., for orange roughy, and where she was often the only woman on board. Di progressed in this male-dominated field to serve as Voyage Leader on a number of expeditions. Through her dedication and awareness of fairness and equity issues in the workplace, she has worked to improve attitudes to women and to allow other women to go to sea in a culturally-safe environment. She is a mentor sought-after by women at all stages of their careers, and her actions and support have enabled and retained females in the sciences.