Barbara Neis (Ph.D., C.M., F.R.S.C.) is John Lewis Paton Distinguished University Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Based in the Department of Sociology, she is also the Co-Director of the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research, a Member of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies. In 2018, Professor Neis was awarded (jointly with Dr. Christina Murray of UPEI), the Vanier Institute of the Family Mirabelli-Glossop Award for distinguished contribution to the work of the Institute. Professor Neis received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto in 1988. She is a past president of the Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health. Professor Neis has worked for more than two decades in multi-disciplinary teams carrying out research in marine and coastal contexts including on social and environmental change, occupational health and safety and mobile work. She is currently Project Director on a 7-year SSHRC-funded Partnership grant entitled On the Move: Employment-Related Geographical Mobility in the Canadian Context. Professor Neis is also co-chair of the Newfoundland node of a second SSHRC-funded Partnership grant, the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy. She is module co-lead and co-investigator in the Canada First Research Excellence supported Ocean Frontier Institute where she is heading up research related to sustainable communities and aquaculture occupational health and safety.
