DURHAM, N.H. – Nancy Kinner, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire, and an internationally recognized oil spill expert, is available to comment on the California oil spill that is threatening wildlife and wetlands and offer insight into cleanup efforts along the state’s southern coastline. She can discuss lessons learned from the BP Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill and new research findings since then that could help in the response to this and future oil spills.

She can be reached directly at nancy.kinner@unh.edu or 603-862-1545.

Kinner is known as a leading independent expert on the fate and effects of spilled oil. During the DWH in 2010, the largest marine oil spill in the U.S., she was sought after for her expertise by national TV and print media outlets and testified before federal lawmakers several times. Kinner has taken a leadership role in creating and disseminating scientific knowledge in support of clean-up efforts, convening several high-level meetings among spill responders, scientists, and other stakeholders including in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. She is viewed as an informed voice who can explain the complex issues of oil spill response, damage assessment and restoration in an understandable way.

Kinner is co-director of UNH’s Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) and the Center for Spills and Environmental Hazards (CSE). CRRC is a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) focusing on spill response and oil’s effects on the environment. The CSE is a center that expands the scope of interaction and cooperation between the private sector, government and academia to evaluate promising technologies and new approaches for response, assessment, and restoration.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation, and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.