Research Fellows

	Tracy Ainsworth - James Cook University Contact : Tracy.Ainsworth@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 4442 Tracy is originally from the North Coast of New South Wales. She completed a BSc in Marine Biology/Aquaculture in 1996 and MSc in Marine Microbiology/Immunology in 2001, both at James Cook University. After working at the University of Queensland for several years she completed a PhD in 2007 at the Center for Marine Studies. Her PhD research investigated the histopathology and microbial ecology of stress and disease in reef corals. Tracy's broad research interests include stress responses, cell biology, immunity and disease of marine invertebrates.
	Glenn Almany - James Cook University Contact : Glenn.Almany@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5721 Glenn is originally from Los Angeles, California. He spent six years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor engineer on a submarine (1985-1991), and has a BSc in marine biology from San Francisco State University (1996) and a PhD in Zoology from Oregon State University (2002). His research is broadly focused on the ecology of coral reef fishes.
	Andrew Baird - James Cook University Contact : Andrew.Baird@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 4857 Andrew grew up in Sydney, Australia. He completed a BSc with 1st class Honours in Marine Ecology in 1994 and a Phd in Marine Ecology in 2001 both at James Cook University. His current research focuses on the evolution of life histories and biogeographical patterns in reproductive ecology of scleractinian corals.
	Natalie Ban - James Cook University Contact : Natalie.Ban@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6067 Natalie has been involved in marine conservation planning and research for the past 10 years. She completed her Ph.D. in Resource Management and Environmental Studies at the University of British Columbia in 2008. She has a Bachelor's and Masters in geography from McGill University. She grew up in Canada, Germany, and the USA. Her current research focuses on incorporating dynamics, especially patch dynamics, into conservation planning.
	Anthony Bertucci - James Cook University Contact : anthony.bertucci@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 4149 Anthony is originally from Corsica (France) and obtained a Master degree in Ecology and Evolution in 2007 at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis. During this period, he started to work on symbiotic cnidarians by studying the effects of global warming on the oxidative stress resistance of the only symbiotic Mediterranean gorgonian: Eunicella singularis. He then started a PhD at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco (2007-2010) during which he used molecular biology, physiology and pharmacology methods to better comprehend the inorganic carbon transport and utilization in reef-building corals. In 2011 accepted a teaching assistant position in Nice. Anthony recently joined the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies as a SuperScience postdoctoral fellow for a 3-year period in the coral genomics group to study the differential expression of genes and physiological responses of corals to environmental parameters and global change.
	Mary Bonin - James Cook University Contact : mary.bonin@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 4119 Mary is originally from chilly Minneapolis (USA) and was awarded a B.A. in Biology from Colorado College (2002) before moving to tropical Townsville (Australia).  In 2011 she received a PhD in Marine Ecology from James Cook University for her research into the effects of habitat degradation on coral-associated reef fishes.  In 2012 Mary joined the CoE as a postdoc investigating connectivity of coral reef fish populations among fished and protected areas on the Great Barrier Reef.  She is also interested in examining effects of habitat fragmentation and loss on population and community processes in coral reef fishes.  In addition to research, Mary enjoys teaching and is involved with courses on sampling design, statistics and marine conservation biology at JCU.
	Joshua Cinner - James Cook University email : Joshua.Cinner@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6751 Josh grew up in Massachusetts, USA. He completed a Masters degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island in 2000 and a PhD from James Cook University in 2006. His research focuses on using social science to improve coral reef management.
	Sean Connolly - James Cook University email : Sean.Connolly@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 4242 Sean Connolly was born and grew up in Evansville, Indiana, USA, a long way from the ocean. He received a B.A. in Biology from Earlham College (USA) in 1994, from whence he began his scientific career with a paper on spider web orientation in 1992. He received a PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University (USA) in 1999, for research on the ecology of temperate rocky shores. During a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona (USA), as part of the Research Training Group in Biological Diversification (1998-2000), he shifted his focus to paleobiology, examining the global dynamics of biodiversity in the fossil record. Since then, he has been at James Cook University as a Lecturer (2000-2002), Senior Lecturer (2003-2006), and Associate Professor (2007), where he has developed a research program in ecological modelling applied to coral reefs. His principal focus is coral reef biodiversity, but he is also active in the areas of physiological ecology, larval ecology, and population dynamics. Sean currently holds an ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship (2008-2012).
	Delphine Dissard - University of Western Australia Contact: delphine.dissard@uwa.edu.au Phone: 61 8 6488 3644 Delphine grew up in France where she obtained a Master (Hons) in Oceanography from the University of Bordeaux. She completed her PhD at the AWI (Bremerhaven/Germany) on the development of mechanistic understanding of elements incorporation into biogenic calcite (foraminifera) (2009). This was followed by an eight month Post Doctoral position at LSCE/CNRS (Paris/France) working on pH reconstruction based on Boron isotopes in deep and shallow water corals. Delphine just started a new Post Doctoral position at the university of Western Australia (UWA/Perth) in continuity to her previous work on corals. Her work will now focus on using the pH- d11B/B/Ca relationships in corals (e.g. Ningaloo Reef Western Australia) and foraminifera to reconstruct centennial, decadal and up to annual variations of surface seawater carbonate chemistry (pH). This should help to quantify surface seawater acidification due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and to better characterise global and regional ocean dynamics.
	Simon Dunn - University of Queensland Contact: s.dunn@cms.uq.edu.au Phone: 61 7 3365 3378 Simon grew up in the UK and obtained a BSc(Hons) in marine and freshwater biology from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London in 1998. He completed his PhD on cellular mechanisms of symbiont release during cnidarian bleaching at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (2002). This was followed by a short-term position researching cellular pathways in neuroblastoma and medullablastoma cancer at the University of Liverpool (2002-2003). He then moved to Corvallis, Oregon, USA to take up a post-doctoral position in the Weis lab. This work focused on the cellular interactions of cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis (2003-2007). His work at UQ will continue to focus on the changes in gene expression and cellular interactions of coral and anemone symbiosis.
	Louisa Evans- James Cook University Contact: Louisa.Evans@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6749 Louisa is a social scientist with interests in governance of marine systems in developing countries. Her PhD, completed through the University of East Anglia (UK), used institutional analysis and political ecology to explore issues of inclusion, knowledge and complexity in marine social-ecological systems in Kenya. Following this, Louisa moved to the WorldFish Center in Malaysia to continue work in resilience thinking and how these concepts can be applied to small-scale fisheries in the developing world. Louisa has recently started as a postdoctoral fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies looking primarily at integrating resilience and other systems approaches with human development perspectives to understand and develop governance approaches that are better at addressing the synergies and trade-offs between poverty reduction, adaptation strategies and ecological sustainability.
	Mike Fabinyi - James Cook University Contact: Michael.Fabinyi@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6358 Mike is originally from Melbourne, where he completed his undergraduate degree in Anthropology. He obtained his PhD at the Australian National University in 2009. His research broadly focuses on the social and political aspects of marine resource management in the Asia-Pacific region.
	Jim Falter - University of Western Australia Contact: jim.falter@uwa.edu.au Phone: 61 8 6488 7328 Jim received his PhD in Chemical Oceanography from the University of Hawaii in 2002 following his completion of an MS from the same program in 1998. He also holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses largely on climatic forcing of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles in coral reef communities.
	Pedro Fidelman - James Cook University Contact: Pedro.Fidelman@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6517 Pedro grew up in Brazil where he received a BSc (Hons) in Oceanography from the Federal University of Rio Grande and MSc in Geography from the University of Sao Paulo. In Australia, he was awarded a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Wollongong. Pedro's research has focused on how institutions – systems of policies, regulations, norms, decision-making-processes and property rights – can be designed and changed to improve environmental governance. Pedro is also a fellow with the Earth System Governance Project, which is a core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP).
	Joana Figueiredo - James Cook University Contact: joana.figueiredo@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6243 Joana Figueiredo grew up in Lisbon, Portugal. She completed a BSc. with Honours in Marine Biology in 2003, a post-graduation in Statistics Applied to Biology and Health Sciences in 2005, and a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences in 2009, at the University of Lisbon (Portugal). Her PhD research at the Guia Marine Laboratory (Portugal) and Florida Institute of Technology (USA) focused on developing and improving aquaculture protocols using larval culture techniques, biochemistry analysis and modeling. After completion of the Ph.D., she was a visitor scholar for 3 months at Stanford University (USA) where she developed a population dynamics model of sequential hermaphrodite fish (coupling prey-predator and sex change dynamics). She did a 6 month post-doc at the Center for Environmental Biology (Portugal) where she developed a socio-ecological model of farmland abandonment. She is interested in the early life history of invertebrates and mathematical modeling. Currently, she is developing a mathematical model to understand the role of asymmetrical dispersal on species coexistence.
	Simon Foale - James Cook University Contact: Simon.Foale@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6785 Simon grew up in the Solomon Islands and studied zoology and marine ecology at the University of Queensland in the early '80s. His Ph.D. (University of Melbourne) and subsequent work (ANU) has involved a strong social science focus. As leader of Research Program 7 he is building a cross-disciplinary cluster while at the Centre, before migrating to the School of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology in 2013.
	Ashley Frisch - James Cook University Contact: Ashley.Frisch@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5281 Ashley calls the Great Barrier Reef his ‘home’, because he has lived and worked there for his entire life. Ashley has wide-ranging interests in the ecology and fisheries biology of coral reef organisms, particularly exploited macrofauna such as shark, fish and lobster. In 2007, Ashley completed a PhD in marine biology at James Cook University. He then worked for three years as a fishery manager at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Now at the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Ashley is investigating the ecological importance of apex predators to coral reefs. He is particularly interested in how overfishing of reef sharks can influence trophic dynamics of coral reefs, and how reef sharks should be managed to maximise ecological resilience of coral reefs in the face of climate change.
	Mariana Fuentes - James Cook University Contact: Mariana.Fuentes@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5270 Mariana grew up in Brazil and England. At James Cook University, she completed a BSc with 1st class Honours in Marine Biology and Environmental Sciences in 2004 and was awarded a PhD Cum Laude (university medal) in May 2010. For her PhD she assessed the vulnerability of the northern Great Barrier Reef (nGBR) green turtle population to climate change. Her current research focus on developing systematic priorities for the management of marine mega-fauna as climate change progresses.
	Nick Graham - James Cook University Contact: Nick.Graham@jcu.edu.au Phone: +61 7 4781 6291 Nick is from the Lake District in the UK, about 4000km from the nearest tropical coral reef. He obtained a BSc(Hons) degree in Zoology from Newcastle University in 1999, a Master of Applied Science in Tropical Marine Ecology from James Cook University in 2002 and, after a few years working as a Research Associate in Prof Nick Polunin's group, a PhD from Newcastle University in 2008. His current research focuses on the impacts of climate change to reef systems, and the physical, ecological and management properties that promote recovery and resilience.
	Alana Grech - James Cook University Contact: Alana.Grech@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5222 Alana grew up in Adelaide, Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Environmental Science with 1st class Honours in Soil Conservation at the University of Adelaide (2003), and a PhD in Environmental Studies at James Cook University (2010). Her current research is broadly focused on the science of systematic conservation planning in the Sea Country of Indigenous Australians.
	Mia Hoogenboom - James Cook University Contact: Mia.Hoogenboom@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6143 Originally from Victoria, Mia studied in Canberra and Indonesia before moving to Townsville to complete her PhD at James Cook University in 2008. In recent years Mia has undertaken research fellowships at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco and at the University of Glasgow before returning to the COE in January 2011. Mia’s research focuses on understanding the causes of intra- and inter-specific variation in the energy budgets of corals and fishes, and the consequences of such variation for the ecology of populations and communities.
	Terry Hughes - James Cook University Contact: Terry.Hughes@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 4000 Professor Terry Hughes is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow (2002-2007, 2007-2012) and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (since 2005). Professor Hughes was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2001, and was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for Australian National Research Priorities in 2002. He is a Fellow and Board Member of the Beijer International Institute for Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Resilience Alliance. He has been awarded numerous prizes awards, including the Centenary Medal of Australia, the Silver Jubilee Award for Excellence of the Australian Marine Science Association in 2004, the 2007 Sherman Eureka Prize for Environmental Research, and the 2008 quadrennial Darwin Medal of the International Society for Coral Reef Studies. According to ISI Science Citation Index, Professor Hughes is ranked number one globally for citations to individual researchers in coral reef science. He has published 18 papers in Science and Nature. In the past 2-3 years, his research has increasingly evolved in a new direction, moving from an ecological focus to a broader evaluation of the linkages between coral reef ecosystems, the goods and services they provide to people, and the welfare of human societies.
	Sally Keith - James Cook University Contact: Sally.Keith@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5267 Sally is from the UK and studied for her BSc in Zoology at the University of Southampton, MSc in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University, and most recently completed her PhD at Bournemouth University on the impacts of environmental change on ecological communities. Sally's research focuses on testing and developing macroecological and biogeographical theory through the use of models based on empirical data. Models aim to explore the impacts of environmental change on the patterns and processes of coral reef biodiversity, with particular focus on extinction and colonisation dynamics.
	Johnathan Kool - James Cook University Contact : Johnathan.Kool@jcu.edu.au Phone: +61 7 4781 6134 Originally born in Montreal, Johnathan has spent many years living and working in a number of different locations throughout Canada and the United States. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Fisheries in 2008 from the University of Miami. He also holds a B.Sc(Ag) in wildlife biology from McGill University, and Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University. Johnathan has also worked professionally as a GIS researcher for the Appalachian Mountain Club and as the GIS lab manager for the World Resources Institute. He is currently developing analytical and individual-based methods for studying the formation of large-scale patterns of diversity in coral reef ecosystems, as well as working on ways to integrate aspects of complexity theory and computer science into conservation planning.
	Vimoksalehi Lukoschek - James Cook University Contact : Vimoksalehi.Lukoschek@jcu.edu.au Phone: +61 7 4781 6294 Vimoksalehi (Vee) grew up in Melbourne and spent most of her 20's in Europe working as a nurse. In her early 30's she made a career shift and moved to Townsville to study marine and conservation biology at James Cook University. She obtained a First Class Honours (1999) on the foraging ecology of coral reef fishes and a PhD (2008) on the molecular ecology of sea snakes. Following her PhD, Vimoksalehi spent a few years as Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof John Avise's group at UC Irvine, where she continued her molecular genetic research on sea snakes. Vimoksalehi's research interests also includes marine mammals and she worked as Research Associate in Scott Baker's lab in New Zealand using forensic genetics to investigate the whale meat markets of Japan and Korea. Vimoksalehi's current research interests include seascape genetics, coral connectivity, and marine protected areas, as well as the conservation of sea snakes on Australia's coral reefs.
	Vanessa Messmer - James Cook University Contact : Vanessa.Messmer@jcu.edu.au Phone: +61 7 4781 5531 Vanessa grew up in a few places, but has her roots in France and Germany. She moved to Townsville in 2000, where she completed a BSc with Honours in Marine Biology in 2003. After working at the University of Perpignan (France) for a couple of years, she returned to JCU and obtained her PhD in 2010. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss from a genetic to ecosystem level in coral reef fish assemblages, as well as the effects of climate change on reef organisms.
	Peter Mumby - University of Queensland Contact : p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au Phone: +61 (0)7 3365 1686 Professor Peter Mumby will be moving to the University of Queensland in 2010 to take up an Australian Laureate Fellowship. Peter is currently Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter. His research on coral reef remote sensing remains the most-heavily cited in the field and has strongly influenced the monitoring of marine ecosystems from space. Before embarking on a research career, Peter spent two years designing marine reserves in Belize where he experienced, first hand, the limited scientific basis for such planning. This experience was highly influential in defining and driving his research, which has been dedicated to conducting applied science in support of the management of coral reefs. In 1997 he obtained a PhD in coral reef remote sensing and then used two post-doctoral fellowships to broaden his expertise into empirical reef ecology and ecological modelling. Today, Peter uses remotely-sensed data to scale up ecological models so that they are spatially-realistic and able to inform conservation decisions directly.
	Philip Munday - James Cook University Contact : Philip.Munday@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5341 Philip grew up in Tasmania where he was surrounded by beautiful forests, great trout fishing, and superb (but chilly) temperate-water diving. He spent a number of years working overseas as a dive guide before returning to Australia and moving to Townsville to study marine biology. He completed his PhD (1996-1999) in Marine Ecology at James Cook University. Philip has conducted extensive research on the reproductive ecology of reef fishes. His current research focuses on fish-habitat associations and the impact of climate change on reef fish communities
	Morgan Pratchett - James Cook University Contact : Morgan.Pratchett@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 5747 Morgan is originally from Botswana, but spent his childhood in Kununurra, north-western Australia. He completed his BSc with honours (1992-1996) and Phd (1996-2001) in Marine Ecology, at James Cook University. His current research focuses on major perturbations and threats to coral reef ecosystems, such as climate induced coral bleaching and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish.
	Bob Pressey - James Cook University Contact : Bob.Pressey@jcu.edu.au Phone: 61 7 4781 6194 Professor Bob Pressey has worked on the theory, techniques and practice of conservation planning as a private environmental consultant, then as a research scientist with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, and now at James Cook University. During his career, he has combined scientific research with policy development and collaboration with practitioners in Australia and internationally. His publications have had a high scientific impact. He is an ISI highly cited researcher in the field of Environment/Ecology with more than 4000 non-self citations of his papers and book chapters. His influence on practice includes close involvement with the systematic design of about 1 million hectares of reserves in New South Wales and collaborative projects that have influenced conservation decisions extensively in other countries. He has current projects in China, South Africa, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Mexico, including two global biodiversity hotspots. His awards and prizes include the New South Wales Premier's Public Sector Environment Award (2004), the Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research (2002), and the major annual award from the Society for Conservation Biology (2001). An important feature of his new research program will be the close involvement of practitioners and other stakeholders representing local, regional, state and national agencies, non-government organisations and community groups.
	Jodie Rummer - James Cook University Phone: +61 7 4781 5300 Contact: jodie.rummer@jcu.edu.au Jodie is originally from the USA where she completed honours, BSc, and MSc degrees in Biology and Marine Biology in Illinois and West Florida before moving to Vancouver, Canada to commence a PhD at the University of British Columbia. Her PhD research investigated oxygen uptake and delivery mechanisms in fish during stress, but she has also done extensive research on buoyancy, exercise, and oxygen and temperature stress in fish. After a post-doctoral fellowship in Hong Kong (2010-2011), she joined the ARC CoECRS where she is applying her broad research interests in conservation physiology. Jodie's research aims to understand how evolutionary pressures have shaped physiological systems and the degree to which adaptation and acclimation to natural and environmental perturbations, such as anthropogenic climate change, can occur.
	Ruth Thurston - University of Queensland Phone: +61 7 3365 2529 Contact: r.thurstan@uq.edu.au Ruth grew up in the Peak District in the UK, many miles from the sea. She graduated from Liverpool University with a BSc (Hons) in Marine Biology in 2004, and completed an MSc in Marine Environmental Management at York University in 2007. Ruth continued at York to complete her PhD on shifting baselines and the impact of industrial fishing on the UK marine environment in June 2011. She has recently started at the University of Queensland and plans to investigate the history of exploitation of Australian fisheries and marine mega-fauna.
	Stefan Walker - James Cook University Phone: +61 (0)7 4781 4017 Contact: stefan.walker@jcu.edu.au Stefan has broad interests in animal evolutionary biology, ecology and behaviour. Since receiving his BSc in Marine biology and Zoology in 2000 (JCU) he has been employed as a lecturer, research fellow, and environmental research consultant. In 2010 he received a PhD from JCU for his work on reef fish breeding systems and strategies. Stefan joined the CoE in mid 2011 and is currently using theoretical and experimental approaches to study collective-action and consensus-decision problems and the evolution of animal communication, behavioural decision rules and strategic cooperation.
	David Williamson - James Cook University Phone: +61 (0)7 4781 6825 Contact: david.williamson@jcu.edu.au Originally from Perth, WA, David moved to Townsville to pursue a BSc and MSc in Marine Biology at JCU. David completed a PhD in the School of Marine Biology and Aquaculture at JCU under the supervision of Garry Russ, Geoff Jones, Lynne Van Herwerden and Simon Thorrold (Woods Hole Institute, USA). David investigates larval dispersal of exploited reef fish, genetic connectivity of populations and potential export effects of MPA’s within the GBR marine park. David has worked on Australian and international research and monitoring projects for organizations including the GBRMPA, CRC, the French Institute for Research and Development (IRD) and the U.S. based Smithsonian Institute.  David’s other interests include playing music, travel and adventure.