Diana Fisher

My research interests include causes and detectability of extinction and decline, conservation ecology of threatened and declining marsupials (especially dasyurids and macropods), and tropical mammals, evolutionary ecology, mating systems and life history evolution, especially associations between life histories and seasonality, climate and sexual selection.

My long-term interest in conservation and evolutionary ecology of carnivorous marsupials started at The University of Sydney, where I was an Honours student of Chris Dickman. I did a PhD on ecology of bridled nailtail wallabies at The University of Queensland with Craig Moritz and Anne Goldizen. My research fellowships and programmes since then have investigated ecology and evolution of mammals: a Royal Society fellowship at the University of Aberdeen with Xavier Lambin, an ARC APD fellowship at ANU with Andrew Cockburn, and an ARF fellowship, and a Future Fellowship and UQ Fellowship at The University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences.

I have worked in state environment agencies and the Australian Museum at times before joining UQ in 2007. I am co-chair of the IUCN Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist Group (with Professor John Woinarski), chair of the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium (affiliated with the Australian Mammal Society), and winner of the 2020 ESA Australian Ecology Research Award.

History:

Principal Research Fellow / Deputy Academic Director UQ Hidden Vale Research Station/ Associate Professor, School of the Environment / Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, UQ. Jan 2022-

UQ Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. Conservation and life history evolution of mammals in Australia and Melanesia. January 2016 – December 2018.

ARC Future Fellow / Senior Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. Life history evolution, extinction and conservation ecology of carnivorous marsupials. January 2012 – December 2015.

ARC Australian Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. Causes of animal extinction and rediscovery, detection of extinction and trajectories of decline in mammals with respect to the spread of invasive predators. January 2007 – December 2011.

Natural Heritage Trust, federal Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra. Collating published data on threats to nationally endangered vertebrates under the EPBC Act, for the Species Profiles And Threats database. Part time, January- December 2006.

ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra. Testing hypotheses to explain the evolution of polyandry, using antechinuses. April 2002 to February 2006 (maternity leave December 2004 – October 2005).

Royal Society Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen. Behavioural mechanisms of density-dependent immigration and implications for population dynamics in the water vole. Jan 2000 - April 2001 (maternity leave April 2001 – April 2002).

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland. Ecological correlates of marsupial life histories, behaviour and social organisation. 1999 - 2000.

PhD. The Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland, supervised by Professor Craig Moritz and Dr Anne Goldizen: Behavioural ecology and demography of the bridled nailtail wallaby, Onychogalea fraenata 1994 - 1998.