The QUT Fruit Fly Group is an informal collaboration of ongoing QUT academic staff, research fellows, and postgraduate students. With the exception of lab leader, Prof Tony Clarke, the other academic staff of the group maintain research programs across areas other than fruit flies, but all have some formal involvement in at least one fruit fly project, or are supervising a lab student. The Fruit Fly Research group is interested in discussing new opportunities to collaborate. Please contact the team to discuss your area of interest.
Research staff

Professor Anthony Clarke
Professor and Chair of Fruit Fly Biology and Management 
Francesca Strutt
Senior Research Assistant 
Rehan Silva
Research Fellow 
Chloe van der Burg
Research Fellow 
Colin Harris
Research Assistant Sabbatical visitors
Research students
Research Alumni – former academic staff and research fellows of the group
Prof Stephen Cameron | Stephen was recruited from QUT, where he was Head of the Biology Discipline, to become Head of Department, Department of Entomology, Purdue University, Indiana, USA. |
Dr Paul Cunningham | Paul was a senior research fellow in the group from 2012 to 2016. He is currently Research Leader, Invertebrate & Weed Sciences, Biosciences Research, Agriculture Victoria. |
Dr Solomon Balagawi | Solomon was a research fellow in the lab from 2009 to 2012. He is currently a Research Officer, Plant Biosecurity Research, NSW Dept of Primary Industries. |
Dr Kumaran Nagalingam | Kumaran completed his PhD in the group, before undertaking a two year postdoc from 2014 to 2016. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow with CSIRO. |
Dr Mark Schutze | Mark was a research member of the lab from 2009 to early 2018. He currently works as a Senior Entomologist, Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. |
Dr Chandra Prabhakar | Chandra spent 12 months in the group during 2017-18 on an Indian Government postdoctoral fellowship. He worked on both the B. dorsalis and Zeugodacus tau species complexes, with the tau complex occupying most of his time. He is now back at his home institution, Bihar Agricultural University. |
Dr Matt Krosch | Matt was a full-time research fellow in the lab from 2015 to early 2018, and prior to that had been associated with the lab on a part-time basis from 2010-12. Matt’s expertise in the group was evolutionary biology and population genetics. |
Dr Katharina Merkel | Katharina was a research fellow in the lab from Aug 2016 to the end of 2019. She is soon to take up a fruit fly position in South Australia. |
Student Alumni – former research students of the group