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Ms Vanessa Glenn

Research Officer
Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Not available for supervision

Vanessa is a plant ecologist working primarily in mine-disturbed areas, and also manages the Institute’s environmental laboratories. Vanessa’s work primarily encompass two themes: investigations of ecosystem resilience and ecosystem successional processes in rehabilitated plant communities; and disturbance impacts on rare and threatened plants. From this perspective, insights into mine closure issues are gained, particularly regarding feasibility of achieving benchmark rehabilitation goals, risk of rehabilitation failure, and knowledge management.

Vanessa has been a researcher at CMLR since 2008. Prior to that, Vanessa applied her research and technical expertise to projects on weed invasion, wallum vegetation, Bridled Nailtail Wallaby habitat and conservation, community-based riparian restoration, and vegetation protection on private land, as well as working for several years in the music industry. Her research work at SMI runs concurrently with her role as a laboratory manager, where she applies technical and organisational skills to ensure the Institute’s environmental laboratories run safely and efficiently. Her success has been recognised with several staff excellence awards.

Vanessa is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia, the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, and TechNet Australia.

Vanessa Glenn
Vanessa Glenn

Dr Alistair Grinham

Honorary Associate Professor
School of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Director of Research of School of Civil Engineering
School of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Monitoring and understanding of greenhouse gas emissions and sediment dynamics in shallow water bodies.

My primary interests are in monitoring and understanding biogeochemical processes within shallow water ecosystems. My formal training was in biochemistry and marine biology focusing on Southern Ocean food webs. Subsequently, I have focused on monitoring sediment loading and greenhouse gas emissions from sub-tropical coastal and freshwater systems.

I joined the School of Civil Engineering in 2007 to work in the area of sediment biogeochemical cycling in freshwater storages and coastal lagoons. In order to better understand these processes it is critical to monitor overlying water column processes as well as catchment interactions. Therefore, my primary research activities have been in the developing novel monitoring systems of catchments and their receiving water bodies.

Alistair Grinham
Alistair Grinham

Dr Laura Grogan

Senior Lecturer in Wildlife Science
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision

(she/her)

Dr. Laura Grogan is a qualified veterinarian, Senior Lecturer in Wildlife Science and Leader of the Biodiversity Health Research Team (https://www.biodiversity-health.org/) - a collaborative multiple-university research group focused on finding sustainable solutions for the most challenging threatening processes currently affecting biodiversity.

Dr. Grogan has a background in research on wildlife diseases, ecology and conservation. She's particularly interested in investigating the dynamics, relative importance, and impacts of infectious diseases among other threats affecting wildlife across both individual and population scales, to improve conservation management.

While she works across taxa and methodological approaches, her main study system currently involves the devastating amphibian fungal skin disease, chytridiomycosis, where at the individual scale she focuses on the pathogenesis and amphibian immune response to the disease, untangling the roles of resistance and tolerance in defense against infection. At the population and landscape scale she explores mechanisms underlying persistence in the face of endemic infection, focused on the endangered Fleay's barred frog. She also studies population and infection dynamics of chlamydiosis in koala using a mathematical modelling approach, exploring the relative benefits of different management approaches. In addition to working on amphibian and koala diseases, Laura is a keen birdwatcher, wildlife photographer and artist. She supervises projects across wildlife-related fields (predominantly vertebrates).

You can find out more about her research team here: www.biodiversity-health.org.

Dr. Grogan has been awarded around $1.3 million in research funding since 2018. In late 2019 she was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA; DE200100490), worth $426,742. This project, titled "Understanding infection tolerance to improve management of wildlife disease", commenced in late 2020. Dr. Grogan was identified as one of the four top-ranked science DECRA awardees by the Australian Academy of Science’s 2020 J G Russell Award, and was also recipient of the highest award of the Wildlife Disease Association Australasia Section with their 2019 Barry L Munday Recognition Award.

PhD and Honours projects are now available in the following areas (plus many more areas - please get in touch if you have an idea):

  • Can frogs be ‘vaccinated’ by antifungal treatment of active infections to develop protective immunity to the devastating chytrid fungus? (Principal Supervisor)
  • Establishing the conservation status of south-east Queensland’s amphibians - occupancy surveys and species distribution models (Principal Supervisor)
  • Tadpoles as a reservoir of the lethal frog chytrid fungal disease – measuring sublethal effects on growth, time to metamorphosis and ability to forage (mouthpart loss) (Principal Supervisor)
  • Impacts of chytrid fungus on the survival of juvenile endangered Fleay’s barred frogs, Mixophyes fleayi, and importance for population recruitment (Principal Supervisor)
  • Measuring the infection resistance versus tolerance of barred frogs to the devastating chytrid fungal disease to improve management outcomes (Principal Supervisor)
  • Mapping the impacts of fire-fighting chemicals on endangered frog habitats (Co-Supervisor)
  • Bowra birds: what do long-term monitoring data reveal about bird communities in the semi-arid region? (Co-Supervisor)
  • Impacts of fire-fighting chemicals on endangered frogs: Implications for conservation and management (Co-Supervisor)
Laura Grogan
Laura Grogan

Dr Sandya Nishanthi Gunasekara

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre for Policy Futures
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Affiliate of ARC Research Hub for Sustainable Crop Protection
ARC Research Hub for Sustainable Crop Protection
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Availability:
Available for supervision

Sandya's primary research focus lies in the study of ocean sustainability, regional fisheries management organizations, conservation and sustainable utilization of marine biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ), and the management of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). Recently, she has expanded her research interests to include the examination of biopesticides and agriculture policies and laws, with a specific emphasis on understanding decision-making processes related to food security. She possesses proficient knowledge in qualitative research analysis using NVivo and Leximancer, as well as quantitative research methods employing SPSS.

Sandya Nishanthi Gunasekara
Sandya Nishanthi Gunasekara

Dr Valerie Hagger

Affiliate of Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Faculty of Science
Research Fellow
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision

Valerie’s research focusses on coastal ecosystem conservation and restoration. She holds an AXA-UNESCO research fellowship on mangrove community forestry for resilient coastal livelihoods, endorsed as an action of the UN Ocean Decade. She co-leads a National Environmental Science Program (NESP) project on carbon abatement and biodiversity enhancements from controlling feral ungulates in wetlands in Australia and is developing a framework to measure verified biodiversity benefits in coastal wetland restoration projects in partnership with CSIRO. She recently led a NESP project on coastal wetland restoration opportunities in Australia for blue carbon and co-benefits for biodiversity, fisheries, water quality, and coastal protection and an Australian Research Council linkage project to identify social and ecological conditions that enable effective mangrove conservation over global and regional scales with partners at The Nature Conservancy and Healthy Land and Water. She has published research on the drivers of global mangrove losses and gains and coastal wetland restoration opportunities. She has co-authored international guidelines on mangrove restoration with Conservation International and incorporation of coastal wetlands into national greenhouse gas inventories with the Australian Government International Blue Carbon Partnerships. Valerie is an experienced ecologist and is a board member of the Society of Ecological Restoration Australasia and a representative of Australia’s Restoration Decade Alliance.

Valerie Hagger
Valerie Hagger

Dr Anthony Halog

Lecturer
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Dr. Anthony Halog: Global Leader in AI-Enabled Circular Economy and Sustainable Systems

Dr. Anthony Halog is an internationally recognized expert in AI-driven circular economy, life cycle assessment (LCA), and sustainable systems engineering. His research integrates artificial intelligence, industrial ecology, and systems thinking to optimize green hydrogen production, bioeconomy transitions, and waste-to-energy systems.

As a Senior Academic at the University of Queensland, Dr. Halog leads research projects funded by ARC, EU Horizon, and industry partners. He has published over 130 high-impact journal articles, advancing knowledge in sustainability science and AI-enabled resource optimization. His work has influenced policy development and industry decarbonization strategies in Australia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Dr. Halog has been awarded prestigious international fellowships, including the OECD Research Fellowship (UK/Finland), DAAD Fellowship (Germany), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship, and NSERC Fellowship (Canada). He has held visiting research positions in the UK, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco, expanding his global impact on circular economy modeling and AI applications in sustainability.

Beyond academia, he plays a key role in policy advisory and industry collaboration, partnering with the OECD, the United Nations, and the European Commission. As a keynote speaker and editorial board member, he continues to shape global discourse on sustainability transitions and AI-driven resource efficiency.

Anthony Halog
Anthony Halog

Dr Daniel Harris

Affiliate of The Remote Sensing Research Centre
Earth Observation Research Centre
Faculty of Science
Affiliate of Centre for Marine Science
Centre for Marine Science
Faculty of Science
Senior Lecturer
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision

My research career began when I recognised that the marine world has a history and pattern that can explain the past, understand the present, and predict the future. I started studying beaches and coral reefs since they are iconic and complex systems where marine, ecological, geological and human processes interact to produce the ecosystems we see today. My goal, and that of my lab (The BeachLab), is to develop tools, gather data, and provide analyses to help coastlines and coral reefs navigate a warmer world. Our projects are focused on fundamental research questions about how coasts and coral reefs change through time. We also have applied research objectives to support the future management of coastal and coral reef systems.

I am now a teacher and researcher in Geography at the School of the Environment at UQ. Prior to my appointment at UQ, I was a teacher and researcher at The University of Sydney (where I completed my Undergraduate and PhD degrees) and in a combined post at The University of Bremen (MARUM) and the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT). Perhaps equally importantly I grew up on the east coast of Australia and I have a personal and professional passion for beaches, coral reefs, surf, and the ocean.

Daniel Harris
Daniel Harris

Dr Wilma J. Blaser Hart

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision

How do we feed the world, adapt to and mitigate climate change, and conserve biodiversity? My research addresses these critical questions by quantifying the trade-offs between agricultural production, climate change, and biodiversity in tropical agricultural landscapes. A key focus of my work is agroforestry—the strategic integration of trees into cultivated lands. While agroforests are not a one-size-fits-all solution, my research shows that agroforestry, when informed by a quantitative understanding of these trade-offs, can improve biodiversity and climate outcomes without compromising agricultural productivity.

Through fieldwork and conservation planning, and in collaboration with my wonderful colleagues at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science (CBCS), I aim to understand how agricultural landscapes can be optimized across large geographic areas, to best meet conflicting goals and improve biodiversity outcomes. The goal of this work is to improve sustainability outcomes across West Africa, where tropical forests have been rapidly converted in order to produce 60% of the world’s cocoa.

Wilma J. Blaser Hart
Wilma J. Blaser Hart

Dr Richard Haynes

Principal Research Fellow
School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision

Professor Haynes works in the areas of soil and environmental science. His present research interests are on rehabilitation and revegetation of mine tailings, the use of constructed wetlands to treat drainage from tailings storage areas and the role of silicon in crop production. He has extensive experience having worked as both an applied research scientist and as a university professor and has worked in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. He has published over 190 original research papers in international journals, over 25 review papers in international volumes as well as many conference and extension papers and contract reports. He has been an invited keynote speaker at many international conferences and has served on the editorial board of 4 international research journals. He has acted as principal supervisor and co-supervisor of PhD, MSc and honours students in both South Africa and Australia.

Professor Haynes has carried out research in commercial horticultural, pastoral, arable and forestry production as well as in small-holder semi subsistence agriculture. He has also worked on bioremediation of soils contaminated with organic pollutants, rehabilitation of mined sites, application of organic and inorganic wastes to soils and the effects of heavy metal contaminants on soil processes. His research has been mainly in the areas of applied soil chemistry and soil microbiology/biology with links to soil physical properties and to pollution of air and water. He has specialised in working on applied problems and maintains strong links with industry. Major areas of research have included the role of grazing animals in the fertility of pastoral soils, N cycling and gaseous and leaching losses from arable and pastoral systems, soil quality and soil degradation under agricultural land use, effects of soil contaminants on soil processes, rehabilitation and remediation of contaminated, degraded and mined sites and use of wastes as soil amendments.

Richard Haynes
Richard Haynes

Professor Bao-jie HE

Adjunct Associate Professor
School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision

Baojie is a (Full) Professor of Urban Climate and Sustainable Built Environment with the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Chongqing University, China. He is currently leading the Centre for Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Cities with the focus on Heat-Resilient and Low-Carbon Urban Planning and Design. Baojie has published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers in high-ranking journals and delivered more than 40 invited talks in reputable conferences/seminars. Baojie has a SCOPUS H-index of 49 (Scopus). Baojie has been involved in several large research projects on urban climate and built environment in China and Australia. Baojie has been invited to act as Associate Editor, Topic Editor-in-Chief, Leading Guest Editor, Editorial Board Member, Conference Chair, Sessional Chair, Scientific Committee by a variety of reputable international journals and conferences. Baojie received the received the Most Cited Chinese Researchers Title in 2024, Highly Cited Researcher Title (Clarivate) in 2022 and 2023, the Sustainability Young Investigator Award in 2022, the Green Talents Award (Germany) in 2021, and National Scholarship for Outstanding Study Abroad Students (China) in 2019. Baojie was ranked as one of the Top 2% Scientists by the Mendeley in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Bao-jie HE
Bao-jie HE

Emeritus Professor Marc Hockings

Emeritus Professor
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Marc Hockings is an Emeritus Professor School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland. He maintains an active research program on the management of protected areas with a particular focus on monitoring and evaluation in conservation management. He is a long-term member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through its World Commission on Protected Areas where he leads the Specialist Group on the Green List and Management Effectiveness. He initiated and is leading the IUCN WCPA work on the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. He is also a member of the IUCN Species Survival and Ecosystem Management Commissions. Marc was the principal author of the IUCN’s best practice guidelines on evaluation of management effectiveness in protected areas. He is an honorary Fellow at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK. In 2008 he received the Kenton R. Miller Award for Innovation in Protected Area Sustainability for his work on management effectiveness.

Marc Hockings
Marc Hockings

Dr Matthew Holden

Affiliate of Centre for Marine Science
Centre for Marine Science
Faculty of Science
Affiliate of Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Faculty of Science
Senior Lecturer
Mathematics
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Dr. Matthew Holden is an applied mathematician using modelling to improve environmental outcomes. Mathematical tools unify his research across several diverse topics in biodiversity conservation, theoretical ecology, fisheries, and other branches of natural resource management. He is especially interested in how we improve the well-being of human populations at least cost to biodiversity.

Dr. Holden currently serves as the Vice President of the Resource Modeling Association, an international society of economists, mathematicians, and envrionmental scientists unified via their passion for modelling and other quantitative methods to solve the world's hardest natural resource management problems. He also is the Deputy Director of Research for the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science (CBCS), and is also affiliated with the Centre for Marine Science (CMS).

Dr. Holden was awarded his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, where he used dynamical systems, optimal control, and statistical theory to recommend policies to improve the management of invasive species, agricultural pests, and fisheries. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis, where he won the University Medal, working on the effect of habitat fragmentation on the persistence of endangered species.

Matthew Holden
Matthew Holden

Professor Longbin Huang

Program Leader/Prof Res Fellow
Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Science and technology of ecological engineering of ferrous and base metal mine tailings (e.g., magnetite tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), Cu/Pb-Zn tailings) into functional technosols and hardpan-based soil systems for sustainable tailings rehabilitation: geo-microbial ecology, mineral bioweathering, geo-rhizosphere biology, technosol-plant relations in mined environments. Championing nature-based solutions to global mine wastes challenges.

Longbin Huang is a full professor and a Program leader in The University of Queensland, leading a research program of "Ecological Engineering in Mining" to develop naure-based methdology and technology, for assisting the world's mining industry to meet the global tailings challenge. Driven by the passion to translate leading knowledge into industry solutions, Longbin has pioneered transformative concepts and approach to tackle rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, acidic and metalliferous waste rocks). Recent success includes the "ecological engineering of Fe-ore tailings and bauxite residue" into soil, for overcoming the topsoil deficit challenge facing the mining industry. Scaled up field trials have been going on to deliver the much-needed technology into field operations. Long-term and multi-site based field trials have demonstrated for the first time, the field-feasibility to accelerate nature-based soil formaiton processes for developing tailings into adaptive and sustainable soil (or technosol) capable of sustaining plant community growth and development (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VzfiWL-8UI&t=4s).

The program consists of a group of researchers with leading knowledge and research skills on: soil/geo-microbial ecology, environmental mineralogy, bioweathering of minerals, native plant rhizosphere (micro)biology, soil-plant relations, and environmental materials (such as biochar and environmental geopolymers). It 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.

In partnership with leading mining companies, Longbin and his team have been focusing on developing game-changing knowledge and technologies of tailings valorisation for achieving non-polluting and ecologically sustainable rehabilitation of, for example, coal mine spoils and tailings, Fe-ore tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), and Cu/Pb-Zn tailings. Leading the global progress in bauxite rehabilitation, Longbin and his team are currently taking on field-scale research projects on bauxite residue rehabilitation technologies at alumina refineries in Queensland (QAL- and Yarwun refineries) and Northern Territory (Gove refinery).

Longbin's industry-partnered research was recognised in 2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL).

Membership of Board, Committee and Society

Professional associations and societies

2010 – Present Australian Soil Science Society.

2016 – Present Soil Science Society of America

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

Editorial boards/services

2018 - present: Member of Editorial Board, BIOCHAR

2013 – present: coordinating editor, Environmental Geochemistry and Health

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)

Longbin Huang
Longbin Huang

Professor Paul Jagals

Director, WHOCC for CH&E
Child Health Research Centre
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Not available for supervision

Paul specialises in Assessment and Management of Risk and Impact of Socio-Environmental determinants on the Wellbeing of our younger generations across their life span.

His overall vision is about how we use Environmental Health Intelligence to improve decision-making towards delivering more efficient Environmental Health Practices, Services and Solutions for local and regional communities in remote and disadvantaged socio-economic settings.

Within the complex interdisciplinary domains that hold the socio-environmental determinants of wellbeing, Paul’s operational research focuses on how / what interventions would best support communities to prevent, mitigate and adapt to EH risk and impact in rapidly changing environments and climate.

Paul Jagals
Paul Jagals

Dr Chelsea Janke

Research Fellow
School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Chelsea Janke
Chelsea Janke

Associate Professor Paul Jensen

Affiliate of Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (formerly AWMC)
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Affiliate of ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites
ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Associate Professor
School of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Associate Professor
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Paul Jensen is a research leader in the areas of anaerobic biotechnology and resource recovery at ACWEB; and leads projects in the areas of waste treatment with a focus on recovery of renewable energy resources, production of bio-fertilizers, bio-plastics and other high value products from wastes and other low value raw materials.

Complex challenges require multi-disciplinary thinking and Paul’s team incorporates engineering, biological sciences, modelling and information processing approaches to research and technology development for a range of partners across municipal, agricultural, animal and industrial sectors.

Paul and ACWEB are recognised as both national and global experts on biogas and resource recovery technologies. They actively contributes to over 12 research and consulting projects per year with applications across the product development cycle. Importantly, the team are having real world impact, and have contributed to a range of major wastewater infrastructure projects in the last 5 years.

Paul Jensen
Paul Jensen

Dr Ron Johnstone

Affiliate of Centre for Marine Science
Centre for Marine Science
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Prior to his current position, A/Prof Johnstone served as deputy director of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland for 5 years, as well as the Assessment and Monitoring theme leader in the Coastal CRC, and as a member of the scientific advisory committee for CRC Reef. He has a long professional history in coastal nutrient and ecosystem function research, as well as in the communication of science to the community, government, and private sector bodies. In addition, A/Prof Johnstone has a longstanding international reputation in his field, having spent approximately 20 years undertaking CZM research and project management in over 13 countries on behalf of government and international donor agencies including IOC-UNESCO, Sida, and the World Bank.

Within Australia, A/Prof Johnstone’s work is focussed on the understanding of benthic habitats, with an emphasis on nutrient processes and dynamics in coastal ecosystems. This includes aspects such as the influence of land-based inputs on coastal ecosystem function and its influence on specific outcomes such as toxic algal blooms.

Ron Johnstone
Ron Johnstone

Dr Natalie Jones

Affiliate of Centre for Marine Science
Centre for Marine Science
Faculty of Science
Affiliate of Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Faculty of Science
Senior Lecturer
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Affiliate Research Fellow of School of Social Science
School of Social Science
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Senior Research Fellow
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision

Natalie is an applied anthropologist that is dedicated to advancing the role of social science in natural resource management and agriculture within interdisciplinary teams. Her research interests involve understanding how people perceive and interact with environmental systems.

Natalie has established a strong track record in applying cognitive constructs, including mental models and values, to explore how people make sense of and relate to their environment. She has an interest in designing and implementing participatory processes to support decision-making.

She is currently leading the social component of an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research project in Fiji which aims to develop a value chain for converting senile coconut trees into engineered wood products. This will reduce reliance on native forest harvesting, provide new income opportunities for landholders and make more productive use of agricultural landscapes.

Natalie has conducted applied social science research within a number of interdisciplinary teams involving governments, research organisations, non-governmental organisations and Indigenous groups. She has published more than 25 academic papers and book chapters.

Natalie is a Senior Lecturer within the School of the Environment. Prior to taking up her position at UQ, Natalie was a Researcher at the Australian National University working in the Resource Management of the Asia Pacific Program. This involved working as a social scientist in an international collaboration with CIRAD – Agricultural Research for Development, to evaluate 34 participatory modelling projects globally. She has undertaken consultancies with various natural resource management groups within Australia, including Healthy Land and Water and Seqwater.

Classes taught within the School of the Enviroment:

- Regulatory Frameworks for Environmental Management and Planning

- Cultural Heritage Management

- Australian Studies

Natalie Jones
Natalie Jones

Dr Amrita Kambo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
UQ Gas & Energy Transition Research Centre
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Not available for supervision

Dr. Amrita Kambo is a multi-disciplinary researcher at The University of Queensland. Her work borrows and applies theoretical constructs from concepts such as ‘social acceptance’ and ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO). These modules can be applied to assess the extent to which a business, or industry or technology gains tacit support from the wider public. Additionally, the SLO concept can be applied to understand standards of responsible behaviour, transparency and accountability in a wide range of settings. To date, Amrita has applied the SLO concept to understand community expectations in the context of renewable energy technologies such as hydrogen and biogas under a project funded by the Future Fuels CRC using familiar methods in social sciences such as surveys, interviews, focus groups and participatory research.

Amrita's wider research interests include sustainable cities, urban infrastructure, planning and place-making. These interests are rooted in the Amrita’s early career and experience in architecture and design.

Amrita’s PhD research included a review of influential topics in context of ‘sustainable’ architecture - ‘regenerative’ design and development, biophilic design, ecosystem services, ‘Geodesign’, biomimicry, green infrastructure, positive development, net-zero design and so on.

Amrita Kambo
Amrita Kambo

Professor Salit Kark

Affiliate of Centre for Marine Science
Centre for Marine Science
Faculty of Science
Affiliate of Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Faculty of Science
Professor
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Professor Salit Kark is a conservation and environmental scientist, with international experience examining the processes shaping biodiversity and their implications for conservation, ecology, environmental decisions, practice and management. Kark and her group provide international leadership in the areas of conservation science, prioritization, invasive species, urban ecology, spatial planning, island conservation, terrestrial, marine and coastal conservation, human-wildlife conflict, and cross-boundary collaboration, working across land-based, coastal and marine environments and collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders and partners in Australia and internationally. The Biodiversity Research Group is a dynamic research team led by Professor Salit Kark at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia with interests in conservation science, ecology and biodiversity. The Kark Group works on a range of conservation, environmental and ecological aspects and collaborates with multiple groups worldwide across terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems and across spatial scales, ranging from regional to global to help solve key environmental questions, ecological, sustainability and conservation challenges around the Planet. We mentor and train future generations of conservation scientists and practitioners, working with local communities and partners internationally to enhance conservation that supports livelihoods and communities.

Kark and her Biodiversity Research Group students and fellows work on addressing environmental and conservation challenges using advanced approaches and tools across multiple spatial scales, from global to local (examining latitudinal and altitudinal gradients), and in both terrestrial (birds and mammals mostly) and marine ecosystems. This includes work across both natural and human-dominated landscapes, examining the generality of spatial patterns and processes. Kark's work integrates socio-economic and historical factors as well as biological and ecological drivers in disentangling the role of the multiple factors that shape biodiversity and its conservation and management. In this framework, Kark's work advances the links between science, practice and policy and in leading actions that allow us to improve science-based conservation. Our group works to enhance close collaboration in conservation with Indigenous and local communities.

Kark is currently serving as a member of UQ's Cultural Inclusion Council and one of UQ's Senate committees and has served on the Promotions and the Confirmation Committee of the Faculty of Science (LCPC), as well as the School of Biological Science's Equity and Diversity Committee (ongoing), the research committee and the the First Nations Engagament committee (ongoing).

Professor Kark served as Deputy Director of UQ's Faculty of Science Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. Kark was an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and is currently teaching and research academic and Professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Brisbane (Australia) and was a Chief Investigator at the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED; 2011-2018) and CEED's Theme A (Environmental Policy and Management) Leader. Kark was Chief Investigator of the Commonwealth-supported NESP Threatened Species hub (2015-2021). In this hub, Kark has initiated and led the national-scale Australian islands conservation project (Saving Species on Australian Islands), which aims to examine and prioritize the conservation of threatened species and actions for native and invasive species across Australia's 9000+ islands.

Kark's Biodiversity Research Group is very international, enhancing gender equity, cultural diversity, and Indigenous engagement, and includes students and fellows from over 20 countries. Kar's graduates are now based across continents in key positions in a broad range of governmental organizations, NGOs, academic organizations, industry, the private sector, and diverse conservation, management and policy roles.

Kark completed her PhD in 1999. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University (between 1999-2002) working with Prof. Harold Mooney, Prof. Gretchen Daily and Prof. Paul Ehrlich at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford.

Between 2002 and June 2013, Kark was a full-time research and teaching faculty member (Senior Lecturer) where she established and led the Biodiversity Research Group, which she currently leads at the University of Queensland.

Salit Kark
Salit Kark