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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg FAA; ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and School of Biological Sciences.

Research Publications (>440 publications, see list and impact Google Scholar). For full Curriculum vitae, click here.

BIOGRAPHY

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia Over the past 10 years he was Founding Director of the Global Change Institute (details here) and is Deputy Director of the Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies (www.coralcoe.org.au, since 2006) and Affiliated Professor in Tropical Marine Biology at the University of Copenhagen (2016-present). Ove’s research focuses on the impacts of global change on marine ecosystems and is one of the most cited authors on climate change. In addition to pursuing scientific discovery, Ove has had a 20-year history in leading research organisations such as the Centre for Marine Studies (including 3 major research stations over 2000-2009) and the Global Change Institute, both at the University of Queensland. These roles have seen him raise more than $150 million for research and infrastructure. He has also been a dedicated communicator of the threat posed by ocean warming and acidification to marine ecosystems, being one of the first scientists to identify the serious threat posed by climate change for coral reefs in a landmark paper published in 1999 (Mar.Freshwater Res 50:839-866), which predicted the loss of coral reefs by 2050. Since that time, Ove led global discussions and action on the science and solutions to rapid climate change via high profile international roles such as the Coordinating Lead Author for the ‘Oceans’ chapter for the Fifth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Coordinating Lead Author on the Impacts chapter of the IPCC Special report on 1.5oC. In addition to this work, Ove conceived and led the scientific XL-Catlin Seaview Survey (details here) which has surveyed over 1000 km of coral reefs across 25 countries (details here) and which captured and analysed over 1 million survey images of coral reefs. These images and data are available to the scientific community and others via an online database: (details here).

Developing these resources is part of Ove’s current push to understand and support solutions to global change with partners such as WWF International: (details here). As scientific lead, Ove has been steering a global response to the identification of 50 sites globally that are less exposed to climate change (Beyer et al 2018, Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2018), working with WWF International to assemble a global partnership across seven countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Cuba, East Africa, Madagascar and Fiji; Coral Reef Rescue Initiative). Scientific papers published by Ove cover significant contributions to the physiology, ecology, environmental politics, and climate change. Some of Ove’s most significant scientific contributions have been recognised by leading journals such as Science and Nature (Hoegh-Guldberg and Bruno 2010; Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2007; Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2019a,b), scores of invited talks and plenaries over the past 20 years, plus his appointment as significant international roles e.g. Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 30 (“The Oceans”) for the 5th Assessment Report, as well as Coordinating Lead Author for Chapter 3 (Impacts) on the special report on the implications of 1.5oC (for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC).

Listen to a recent interview of Ove by Jonica Newby for the ABC Science Show.

Nature-based rehabilitation science and technology, with a focus on ecological engineering of mine wastes (e.g., AMD-waste rocks, tailings (coal tailings, magnetite tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), Cu/Pb-Zn tailings)) into earth materials (e.g., soil, engineered rocks) and resilient landforms for cost-effective sustainable rehabilitation at mine waste landscapes.

Professor Huang is a full professor and the group leader of Ecological Engineering in Mining, in the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland. Since 2010, Prof Huang has pioneered new concepts and technological framework to manage and rehabilitate mine wastes (e.g., tailings, acidic and metalliferous waste rocks), through putting pedogenesis in engineering nutshell, i.e., eco-engineering of pedogenesis in mine wastes. He is leading an industry-enaged and interdisciplinary research group that is partnered with leading mining companies and empowered by multidisciplinary knowledge and skills on: environmental molecular microbiology, environmental mineralogy, soil science, native plant rhizosphere (micro)biology, soil-plant relations, and bio-chemical engineering of environmental materials (e.g., functional carbon and mineral absorbents, environmental geopolymers).

He is highly experienced in industry-partnered research and translation of knowledge into field-based technologies for tackling large environmental challenges in the mining industry, for example, technologies for tackling global tailings problem. Since 2010, he has led many large and industry-partnered research projects attracting about $21M funding. The research aims to deliver transformative knowledge and practices (i.e., technologies/methdologies) in the rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, mineral residues, spoils, waste rocks) and mined landscapes for non-polluting and ecologically and financially sustainable outcomes. Prof Huang has successfully demonstrated innovative methodology and technology to achieve nature-based outcomes in treating and rehabilitating tailings and waste rocks. Prof Huang’s research program was featured in Rio Tinto’s media releases as one of the four most successful global R&D partnerships in 2024. Prof Huang led the development of the first field-feasible technology to treat and dealkalize alkaline bauxite residues for sustainable rehabilitation. His industry-partnered research was recognised in 2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL). Prof Huang is also developing new knowledge and technologies for achieving non-polluting and ecologically sustainable rehabilitation of, for example, coal mine spoils and tailings, Fe-ore tailings, bauxite tailings (from mining bauxite), and Cu/Pb-Zn tailings.

Membership of Board, Committee and Society

Professional associations and societies

2010 – Present Australian Soil Science Society.

2023 – Present AuSIMM

2015 – Present American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR)

Editorial boards/services

2025 - present: Member of Editorial Board, Energy & Environment Nexus

2022 – present: Associate editor (Soil), Reclamation Sciences

Awards & Patent

2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL)

2017 SMI-Industry Engagement Award, University of Queensland

2015 SMI-Inaugural Bright Research Ideas Forum Award, University of Queensland

2014 SMI-RHD Supervision Award, University of Queensland

2015 Foliar fertilizer US 20150266786. In. (Google Patents). Huang L, Nguyen AV, Rudolph V, Xu G (equal contribution)

Dr Elin Jennings is a postdoctoral research fellow in Mine Waste Geoscience at the W.H.Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She currently works in the Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) research group.

Elin's current research focus is on characterising legacy mine waste and Acid Mine Drainage in support to promote sustainable mining practices.

Before her PhD, Elin completed a BSc in Environmental Earth Science at Aberystwyth University. During her undergraduate years, she was awarded the Walter Idris Bursary for an independent research project on the adsorption and desorption of harmful elements on coal and ochre. Her dissertation focused on mapping potentially harmful elements around the Clydach nickel refinery in Wales, which contributed to the British Geological Survey’s urban geochemistry map of Swansea. She received the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Award, and the Rudler Exhibition Prize for her academic achievements.

She earned her PhD from the University of Exeter, Camborne School of Mines (UK), under the supervision of Prof. Karen Hudson-Edwards and Dr. Rich Crane. Her research, conducted in collaboration with the NERC-funded Legacy Waste in the Coastal Zone project, focused on the behaviour of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)-related metal(loid) contaminants such as arsenic, copper, and zinc in the Carnon River (UK) and their interactions with changing hydrological cycles and seawater in coastal zones. Elin’s thesis, Sources, Pathways, and Sinks of Metal(loid) Contaminants in an AMD-Affected River System, combined geology, geochemistry, and environmental science. Her fieldwork involved extensive sampling and hydrological measurements, and she developed expertise in advanced analytical techniques, including synchrotron-based XAS, XRF, ICP-OES, SEM-EDX, QEMSCAN, and ferrozine assays. She was awarded a Diamond Light Source grant to study arsenic transformations in river sediments using beamline I18.

After her PhD, Elin entered a role as a graduate research assistant in the PAMANA project. Project PAMANA aimed to provide a holistic understanding of the legacy, present and future environmental and ecological impacts of mining on Philippine River systems. The project also aimed to lay the foundations for a novel catchment monitoring and management infrastructure that informs sustainable mining practice through more effective Environmental Impact Assessment. Her role in this project focused on creating a geochemical profile of soils in the Agno Catchment and understanding the controls of their distribution (i.e. land use and geology).

I use geochemistry to investigate the roles of fluids and volatiles in geological processes stretching from the Earth's surface to the deep mantle. I am particularly interested in hydrothermal alteration, metasomatism/metamorphism and magmatism. The common link between these areas, and the aim of my recent research, has been to investigate the longterm exchange of volatiles between the Earth's surface and mantle reservoirs, stretching from the seafloor, through subduction zones and into the mantle. I participated in Expedition 360 of the International Ocean Discovery Program in 2016, to the slow-spreading Atlantis Bank core complex on the SW Indian Ridge, where I acted as shipboard geochemist and crossed the equator by boat for the first time. I have long standing interests in fluid inclusions as tiny recorders of past fluid activity and special interests in the halogen and noble gas groups of elements.

I moved to UQ in 2019 from the Australian National University where I was a continuing Fellow and had held an ARC Future Fellowship. Prior to that I had an ARC QEII Fellowship at the University of Melbourne (2008-2013) and postdoctoral appointments at the University of Melbourne (2004-2008) and the Geological Survey of Norway (2001-2003). I did my PhD at the University of Manchester (2001) and undergraduate studies in Geology at the University of Edinburgh (1996).

BSc.Hons. (HKU), MPhil. (HKU), PhD (NUS)

Dr Annie Lau is a coastal geomorphologist with a primary research interest in analysing past occurrences of coastal hazards, in particular extreme waves generated by storms and tsunamis, through sedimentary, geomorphological and historical records for assessing the future threat in coastal areas. For example, she has specialised in using the characteristics of large coastal boulders (e.g. size and distribution of rocks) to estimate the strength of extreme waves and to reconstruct the history of extreme events in the past millennia at a few tropical islands in the Asia-Pacific area. More recently, Annie investigates coastline evolution of the sandy Central to Southern Queensland coasts in the late Quaternary - Holocene by analysing sediments and using OSL quartz dating.

Annie teaches a range of courses in Geography, Marine Science, and Geoscience disciplines. She is interested in all types of natural hazards and disaster management, some research areas that she's expanding into since acquiring in-depth knowledge through leading the "Environmental Hazards" course. Students who are interested in researching hazard topics are encouraged to discuss their research ideas with Annie.

She is a project leader of the following research networks:

IGCP Project 725 - Forecasting Coastal Change: "From Cores to Code: Bringing together scientists from coastal geology and numerical modelling to improve the predictive capacity of numerical models to fore- and hind-cast coastal change"

ISROC - Inundation Signatures on Rocky Coastlines: This network serves as a focal point for researchers, educators, and students to understand Coastal Boulder Deposits (CBD) and the storms and tsunamis that generate them.

Dr Li has a broad interest in geoscience, with specialised expertise in geophysics and geomechanics applications for resource and geoenergy exploration and development.

Jimmy obtained a Bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering from China University of Petroleum in 2007. He then spent a decade at Halliburton Energy Services, working in various technical and management roles within the Sperry Drilling division. During his industry career, he was involved in multiple onshore and offshore drilling and geophysical logging projects, including the Shell Changbei project, ConocoPhillips Penglai offshore project, PetroChina Tarim Basin project, and BG Lingshui deepwater exploration project.

In 2021, he completed a PhD in Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University. His doctoral research led to the development of a new theory on wettability-affected wave propagation in fluid-saturated porous media, which in turn enabled the development of an experimental method for characterising rock wettability using elastic wave measurements. This research established a strong theoretical and experimental foundation for the development of multi-frequency sonic logging tools for formation wettability assessment.

Since joining The University of Queensland in 2021, Dr Li's research has focused on theoretical and experimental studies in rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering for underground mining and drilling applications. In 2022, he played a key role in establishing the Quality Management System (QMS) for the Mechanical Testing Laboratory, which subsequently received NATA accreditation for rock mechanics measurement.

Em. Professor Lockington primarily researchs topics in the area of water transport in coastal soils and aquifers, including water exchange with plants and atmosphere. However, he has also conducted research on moisture transport in building materials and the design of sustainable tourism destinations. In addition to substantial contributions as a reviewer for a wide range of journals and funding bodies, Em. Prof Lockington has held editorial roles on two major journals in the area of hydrology and water resources research (Water Resources Research 2007 - 2012; Advances in Water Resources 1997 - 2020). Em. Prof. Lockington has undertaken a number of leadership roles across his career, including Program Leader for the Sustainable Tourism CRC I and II (Engineering and Design) from 2000 - 2008, Head of the Environmental Engineering Division (School of Engineering, UQ) from 2004 - 2010, and Research Program Leader for the ARC SRI funded National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training from 2009 - 2015. From 2010 to 2020 he frequently acted as Head of the School of Civil Engineering. From 2007 till 2025 he was a Fellow of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications.

Dr Mason began at The University of Queensland in late 2014 after holding academic positions at The University of Sydney and QUT. Prior to joining UQ he also worked as a catastrophe risk researcher for the industry-focused research centre, Risk Frontiers at Macquarie University. Matthew’s key areas of interest and expertise lie in the fields of:

• Wind Engineering
• Stochastic modelling of hazards, including convective storms and tropical cyclones
• Probabilistic modelling of structural and infrastructure vulnerability to wind, water and hail
• Catastrophe loss modelling for natural hazards
• Modelling and observation of the atmospheric boundary layer
• Wind tunnel testing and analysis
• Disaster insurance

Dr Mason is currently the Chair of the Standards Australia wind loading sub-committee responsible for maintenance of AS/NZS1170.2.

Neil is civil engineer with expertise in hydrology and water resources. He splits his time between the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry and the School of Civil Engineering. His current research interests include water resource systems modelling, understanding impacts of mining on water resources, remote sensing applications in hydrology and stochastic hydrology. Neil graduated with a BEng in Civil Engineering from Edinburgh University in 1990 and then worked for seven years in the Scottish pubic sector on wastewater treatment and disposal scheme design and construction. He obtained an MSc in Environmental Engineering in 1998 then a PhD in water quality modeling at Imperial College. Neil worked at Imperial as a Lecturer and Reader in Surface Water Hydrology between 2001 and 2013. This included teaching water quality, hydrometry, hydraulics, and water resources engineering; and a 5-year spell as Director of the Hydrology MSc program. His research there focused on surface water quality, uncertainty in modelling, land use management impacts, and hydrological up-scaling and regionalisation. While most of Neil’s research has been UK and Australia-based, international activity has included projects in Thailand, Uganda, Botswana, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Mongolia and China. He has been a member of the British Hydrological Society national committee, the ICE’s Water Expert Panel, and the NERC Peer Review College. He was won several awards, including the Institution of Civil Engineer’s Baker Medal and RA Carr Award for water resources research. He held an ARC Future Fellowship from 2014-2019.

Peter began his career helping to design MPAs in Belize, Central America. On realising how little science was available to guide this he moved to the University of Sheffield to undertake a PhD on the use of remote sensing for mapping coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves. After his PhD, Peter won a NERC Post-doctoral Fellowship to study ecological processes on coral reefs and moved to the University of Newcastle to join the Centre for Tropical Coastal Management Studies. He was then awarded a Royal Society Fellowship to integrate empirical ecological data into models of coral reefs with a view to studying how changes in human activity can affect the health of reefs. At this point he moved to the University of Exeter where he was made Professor at the age of 34. In 2010, Peter moved closer to coral reefs when he moved to the University of Queensland to take up an ARC Laureate Fellowship. He loves living in Australia! Peter was awarded a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation in 2010, and is also winner of the Rosenstiel Award for excellence in marine biology and fisheries, and the Marsh Award for contributions to marine conservation.

Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox is a Principal Research Fellow in Mine Waste Geoscience at the W.H Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She is the founding leader of Australia's premier secondary prospectivity research group- Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH). Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox is also a deputy director in the Critical Resources for the Future ARC ITTC (collaborating with UWA, ANU and UoA).

Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox's research is focussed on mine waste characterisation to improve mine planning and waste management practices. , Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox has worked with mining industry, METS sector and government stakeholders. Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox has developed new tests and protocols for improving waste characterisation and has led projects looking for innovative solutions to remediate abandoned/ historical mine sites. Most recently, Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox has led major government and industry funded projects characterising a range of mine waste materials to evaluate their economic potential in the context of critical metals.

Before completing her PhD in 2012 at the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES), Anita obtained a 1st class MSc (Hons) degree from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College (University of London) in Environmental Geology (2005). Professionally, she has worked as an environmental consultant (2005-06) and as a research assistant for the AMIRA P843 geometallurgy project (2006-07). She worked part-time as a Junior Research Fellow for the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE; 2011-2012) and then went on to become a postdoctoral research fellow in the Environmental Indicators program (2012-2015). Next, Anita was appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow for the ARC TMVC Research Hub (2015-2019) where she serves as the deputy leader of Theme 3 (minimising geoenvironmental risks) and the leader (2016-2018) of Program 2 (Geometallurgy, Geoenvironment and Mining) at CODES.

Julie’s research is mainly focussed on gas-water-rock core reactivity at reservoir conditions using experimental, field, and geochemical modelling techniques. Recent projects have been in the application of carbon dioxide geological storage in which CO2 is captured and stored in formations generally contained by low permeability cap-rock. The safe containment of the injected CO2 and the potential changes to rock porosity, permeability, and water quality should be determined. Recent and current projects with a focus on a demonstration site in the Surat Basin (Precipice Sandstone) include the impacts of impurity or acid gases present in industrial CO2 streams (collaboration with D. Kirste, SFU), inducing carbonate precipitation (in collaboration with S. Golding), and understanding dissolved metal sources and fate. Julie has also worked closely with the CO2CRC, CTSCo, Glencore, SEAL, the NSW government, CI-NSW, and ANLEC R&D, and provided expert opinion to the Queensland Government, and input to Environmental Impacts Assessments.

Julie is currently working with landholders, the QLD regional government, RDMW, councils and industry to understand the sources of methane in aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin, especailly those overlying coal seam gas reservoirs (CSG) (with Arrow Energy, SANTOS, APLNG, H. Hoffman, K, Baublys).

Other projects include gas-water-rock or acid-rock reactivity that modify nano-porosity and gas flow in gas or oil bearing shales.

Julie Pearce graduated with an MCHEM (Hons) degree in Chemistry from the University of York, UK. She then moved to the University of Bristol to complete a Ph.D. in 2007 focusing on laser spectroscopic studies to understand the detailed reaction dynamics of atmospheric processes. From 2007 – 2009 she accepted a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, hosted at Nagoya University, Japan. There she measured delta 13C and delta 18O isotopic signatures of CO2 simultaneously in real time in the atmosphere using a laser spectroscopic technique to understand anthropogenic and biogenic sources of CO2. After taking a career break to travel in 15 countries in Asia, she moved to Brisbane in 2010 where she is enjoying the surrounding natural beauty of Queensland.

Stuart is a scientist, educator, and leader who builds and applies methods to measure and understand how our environments are changing at multiple scales (www.eorc.org.au ). He works across collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams and organisations to deliver quality science that draws upon field-work, satellite-image data, and modelling, through: founding directorships of Australia national earth observation coordination body (www.eoa.org.au) and collaborative research infrastructure (www.tern.org.au ) and a world-leading research to operational program that supports government environmental monitoring (www.jrsrp.org.au ); and program leadership of industry-driven research (www.smartsatcrc.com ). Stuart’s work provides solutions to support sustainable development and resource use for all levels of government, various industries, and communities.

Professor Andries B. Potgieter is a Principal Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), University of Queensland, and an international leader in Digital Agriculture. With a career spanning over 35 years across government, industry, and academia, his research integrates remote sensing, climate forecasting, and crop–climate modelling to support resilient, data-driven decision-making in agriculture. He is currently a key research collaborator in the $36 million GRDC-funded Analytics for the Australian Grains Industry (AAGI) initiative, where he leads digital analytics activities within UQ.

Professor Potgieter’s work focuses on developing predictive tools that combine satellite Earth observation, machine learning, and crop simulation to improve seasonal forecasting, crop monitoring, and risk management. He has pioneered widely adopted innovations such as the CropID tool, now commercialised via Data Farming Pty Ltd, and his models have influenced decision frameworks at Statistics Canada and the FAO. His 114 peer-reviewed publications have accrued over 4,000 citations, and his Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) places him in the top 5% of researchers globally.

He has built a thriving interdisciplinary research program and mentoring pipeline, supervising PhD, Masters, and MoDS students, and supporting postdoctoral researchers who now work at AWS, Sugar Research Australia, and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. His leadership in global partnerships has positioned UQ as a preferred academic collaborator for international institutions tackling climate-smart agriculture.

Current projects

• Analytics for the Australian Grains Industry (AAGI) – Digital analytics for yield forecasting and decision tools for grain growers (GRDC)

• CropVision – Satellite remote sensing and AI for field-scale crop production forecasting (ARC Linkage)

• RiskSSmart – Integration of Earth observation and climate models for sorghum risk mitigation (SmartSat CRC)

• Root Phenomics – Linking above-ground sensing to root system architecture to accelerate phenotyping of drought-tolerant cereals (GRDC; Chief Investigator)

• ARC Training Centre for Predictive Breeding in Agricultural Futures – Developing next-generation tools and training pathways for climate-resilient crop improvement (ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centres; Collaborating Investigator)

Previous research highlights

• Late Maturity Alpha Amylase (LMA) Risk Modelling – National-scale risk prediction framework for wheat quality (GRDC)

• CropPhen – High-throughput phenotyping for crop type and growth stage detection via drone/UAV (GRDC)

• SIMLESA and YieldShield – Groundbreaking work in food insecurity mapping and climate risk insurance across eastern and southern Africa

Gilbert Price is a Senior Lecturer in Palaeontology at The University of Queensland. He is a vertebrate palaeoecologist and geochronologist, particularly interested in the evolution and emergence of our planet’s unique ecosystems and fauna, and their response to prehistoric climatic changes. His major research focus has been on the development of palaeoecological models for Australia’s Cenozoic, especially the Quaternary megafauna. Critically, this also involves the production of reliably-dated records for the fossils that he studies. You can follow Gilbert on Twitter (@TheFatWombat) and read his reserach blog at www.diprotodon.com.

Dr David Pullar's research interests are in: Geographical Information Science (Spatial analysis, Spatial modelling languages and frameworks, 3D visualisation, Environmental database applications) and Landscape Modelling (Catchment hydrology, Landuse change, Landscape dynamics).

David Pullar received his PhD from the University of Maine in 1994. His current research projects are in the fields of:

Incorporating Level Set Methods in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for Land-Surface Process ModellingUsing Spatial Simulation to Create a Process Classification of Provincial BioregionsEnvironmental Database Management and IntegrationHis collaborators include:Coastal CRCIntelligent Real-time Imaging and Sensing (IRIS)The Ecology CentreHigh Performance Computing, VisAC Lab