Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen

Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen is a Science Integrator with the Integration and Application Network of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES). Originally a molecular microbiologist and marine scientist from the Philippines, she was inspired to shift her focus on how science can benefit both nature and society after taking the Science for Environmental Management course taught by Bill Dennison and Don Boesch during her graduate program at the University of Maryland. She was conferred with the first PhD under the new Environment and Society foundation of the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science graduate program of UMCES. Her dissertation investigated the role of socio-environmental report cards in transdisciplinary collaboration and adaptive governance for a sustainable for future. She received academic training from the University of the Philippines (BS, 2004; MS, 2009) and the University of Maryland (MS, 2013; PhD, 2020).

Vanessa is an emerging transdisciplinary scientist and practitioner, specializing in science communication, socio-environmental assessments and synthesis, and stakeholder analysis and engagement through co-production. She is deeply involved in the development of holistic socio-environmental assessments for the Mississippi River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds in North America and is leading a multi-year international transdisciplinary research consortium involving the US, Norway, Philippines, Japan, and India.