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Professor Michael Bode
Deputy-Director of Career/Capacity Development, Chief Investigator
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Associate Professor Kate Helmstedt
Chief Investigator, Theme 3 Lead
Dr Helmstedt's research expertise is in using operations research to guide smart decision making for natural resource and environmental management with the ultimate goal of guiding future management decisions towards cost-efficiency, transparency and defensibility. Ecological systems are incredibly complex, and changing how those systems interact and evolve can have unexpected implications....
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Professor Kerrie Wilson
Chief Investigator
Professor Kerrie Wilson is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability and Research Integrity) and previously the Executive Director of the Institute for Future Environments at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Before joining QUT in January 2019, Kerrie was the Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions...
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Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen
Chief Investigator
Background Kerrie Mengersen graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours Class 1), majoring in Mathematics (Statistics) and Computing, and received her PhD in Mathematical Statistics in 1989 from the University of New England, New South Wales. Her PhD thesis was on the topic of ranking and selection under...
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Professor Matthew Dunbabin
Chief Investigator
Matthew conducts transdisciplinary research into environmental robotics focusing on advanced perception-to-action solutions with application to large-scale management and monitoring challenges. He currently holds the position of Professor at the Queensland University of Technology as well as Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision (ACRV). An experienced researcher and...
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Professor Felipe Gonzalez
Chief Investigator
Dr Gonzalez is an Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics (EER) and a CI in QUT Centre for Robotics (QCR), Engineering Faculty with a passion for innovation in the fields of aerial robotics and automation. Gonzalez interest is in creating aerial robots, drones or UAVs that possess a high...
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Dr Matthew Adams
Chief Investigator
Dr Adams is an applied mathematical modeller of environmental and biological systems, with a strong interest in using these models to inform decision-making. His work aims to bridge the gaps between modellers and decision-makers, by showing how mathematics can be used to gain substantial insights into how environmental systems function...
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Dr Justine Shaw
Senior Research Fellow
Justine Shaw is a Senior Research Fellow in Antarctic and island conservation science at Queensland University of Technology. She leads research on Antarctic biodiversity and island ecosystems, including invasive species impacts and management. Justine uses decision science to work collaboratively with conservation managers and policy makers. Her research has impact,...
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Dr Juan Sandino
Research Fellow
Juan is a research engineer with experience in multidisciplinary projects and designing autonomous prototypes and software, especially in precision agriculture, biosecurity, and autonomous search and rescue (SAR) onboard small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). His primary interests comprise autonomous small UAV decision-making, machine learning and computer vision for UAV remote sensing,...
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Dr Oakes Holland
Research Fellow
Oakes is an Antarctic marine ecologist with an interest in nearshore benthic communities. Her previous work includes the first comprehensive risk assessment for marine invasive species to these nearshore environments. Within SAEF she will continue her work on nearshore environments with the aim to increase protection for the conservation of...
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Dr Morenikeji Deborah Akinlotan
Research Fellow
Morenikeji is an applied mathematician who models complex biological and environmental systems. She is passionate about using mathematics to solve real world problems that directly influence environmental policies. Within SAEF, her work will focus on using mathematical decision science to explore the relationship between the collection of new data (and...
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Dr Maria Kleshnina
Research Fellow
Maria is a game theorist with the focus on strategic decision making in groups, especially, in the presence of inequality. Previously, her research was focused on understanding how interplay of inequality and other mechanisms (such as information, decision-making policies, etc) affect the evolution of social behaviour. Now, Maria is interested...
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Dr Valeria Senigaglia
Research Fellow
Valeria is a behavioural ecologist and marine scientist, interested in the interdependence of social science and environmental conservation. By exploring the resilience of socio-ecological systems and their current governance, she aims to assist decision-makers to sustainably manage Antarctica’s Cultural Ecosystem Services.
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Dr Jasmine Lee
Associate Investigator
Jasmine is a conservation biologist and quantitative ecologist. Her work focuses on understanding biological vulnerability to climate change, predicting how species and ecosystems will respond to climate change impacts, bio-physical modelling of the effects of climate change, and determining how we best plan for a brighter future for Antarctic and...
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Associate Professor Kate Thompson
Associate Investigator
I am the leader of the Digital Learning for Change Research Group in the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice. I am also the Research Engagement Leader for VISER in the Research Infrastructure portfolio. I give priority to researching the processes of learning and teaching, particularly with technology. Technology...
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Charlotte Patterson
PhD Student
Charlotte Patterson is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Justine Shaw and Dr Kate Helmstedt. Her PhD project seeks to model the distribution and future trajectories of under-represented taxa in Antarctica’s ice-free areas, exploring the challenges and management opportunities presented through these modern predictive modelling techniques. Charlotte has...
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Larissa Lubiana Botelho
PhD Student
Larissa is a Ph.D. candidate at QUT, and her main research area is modelling complex systems applied to ecology and environmental policy. In her Ph.D., supervised by Prof. Michael Bode, Dr Kate Helmstedt and Prof. Kerrie Wilson, she is undertaking her research as part of the ARC Special Research Initiative...
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Kita Williams
PhD Student
Kita is a PhD student researching ecological interactions in terrestrial ecosystems of the sub-Antarctic islands. She is interested in the unique environments and invertebrate biodiversity of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, biosecurity, and conservation under climate change. Kita’s background is in marine biology, having previously studied the cell biology of juvenile...
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John Lyons
PhD Student
John is a PhD candidate at QUT, and his main research area is modelling regime shifts in Antarctica, supervised by Prof. Michael Bode, and Dr Matthew Adams. John worked for 20 years as a Software Engineer working on large projects for IBM, Telstra, ANZ, Microsoft, Apple and Google.
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Wen Wen
PhD Student
I’m a marine conservation practitioner, data scientist, and planner. I have more than 15 years of experience in applying systematic conservation planning in the marine environment field. I completed my bachelor degree at the University of Indonesia majoring in geography science in 2004 and then I was awarded a Masters...
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Caitlin Selfe
PhD Student
Caitlin Selfe is studying for her PhD based on palaeoclimatology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her project focuses on reconstructing Holocene (last 12,000 yrs) Southern Hemisphere westerly wind (SHW) patterns and temperature from lake sediments on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. She is interested in links between climate systems and variables...
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Sarika Karanth
PhD Student
Sarika is a PhD student at Queensland University of Technology whose research interests involve the application of mathematical modelling techniques to ecological questions. Under the supervision of Professor Michael Bode and Dr Matthew Adams, she is working on the mathematical modelling of regime shifts in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions....
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Maggie Smith
Masters Student
Maggie is studying a Masters of Philosophy at QUT. Her project aims to determine changes in subantarctic Macquarie Island’s seabird populations over time; establishing important baselines for pre-human landscapes and invasive species impacts to inform future management. This will be achieved by combining palaeo-ecological techniques, through the analysis of peat cores,...
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Tace Stewart
PhD Student
Tace is a PhD student at QUT. Her background is in applied mathematics and operations research, with a focus on ecological applications. Her PhD will be on the value of information when conserving biodiversity in Antarctica.
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Xiang Zhao
Masters Student
Xiang Zhao is a research student working on applying systematic conservation planning tools on management and development of Antarctica’s Protected Areas. He worked on a project protecting the giant panda’s habitats from degradation caused by free-ranging livestock in three IBAs (Wanglang, Xuebaoding, and Xiaohegou Nature Reserves) located in Southwest China,...
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Sam White
Honours student
Sam is an Honours student at the Queensland University of Technology, under the supervision of Dr Justin Shaw and Prof. Jennifer Firn. He is interested in Macquarie Island’s invasive plant species, and what has driven their spread on the island. His research will explore how their distribution and densities have...
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Dr Ilva Sporne
Deputy Program Manager
Ilva works in collaboration with the Deputy Director–Career Development and the SAEF Central team to coordinate operations and effective integration across the program.
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Nzie Okpokam
Data Management Specialist
Nzie provides informatics capability that lies at the heart of SAEF’s synthesis and integration of data and decision making requirements.
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Elise Mills
Research Assistant
Elise is currently an undergraduate student studying applied and computational mathematics, working as a Research Assistant at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and is a member of QUT’s Applied Mathematical Ecology Group. She has previously completed undergraduate degrees in applied science (biotechnology and biomolecular science) and classical music. Elise’s research...