Researchers
Students
Alumni
ManagementChico Birrell
PhD graduate
University of Queensland
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au
Chico first experienced coral reefs as a “beche de mer” collector from Cairns in 1993. As an Ecological Science undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh he became involved in initiatives for conservation of coral reefs in Central America. Following work in the tourism and dive industry in Spain, Portugal and Morocco he moved to Townsville and undertook an MSc to investigate the impacts of macroalgae on coral reproduction at James Cook University. Since 2003 Chico has worked as an independent marine consultant, a dive instructor and biologist on the Great Barrier Reef and in the Coral Sea for Undersea Explorer, as a research assistant at James Cook University, as a benthic ecologist for the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Western Australia (Scott Reef, Ningaloo Reef and Kimberley Region), as a translator and interpreter (Portuguese, Spanish), as a scientific commercial diver and for coral health and fecundity monitoring projects as a consultant in Western Australia.. In 2011 Chico joined ARC Laureate Prof. Peter Mumby at the University of Queensland, for a PhD to explore the ecology and dynamics of macroalgae and provide insights for conservation measures to boost coral reef resilience. He also dedicates spare time to the Australian Coral Reef Society (www.australiancoralreefsociety.org)
Squid will survive and may even flourish under even the worst-case ocean acidification scenarios, according to a new study published this week. Dr Blake Spady, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for C
Scientists have revealed the torrid, adulterous love lives of the mouth-brooding cardinalfish, with cuckoldry going hand-in-hand with cannibalism of the young.“This is a small and unassuming cor
A new study published today in Nature Climate Change finds coral reefs are under threat from ocean acidification.The study was led by researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef S
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In 2016, JCU joined the pilot of the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Athena SWAN program. This program aims to move towards gender equity in STEMM at universities and research institutes acr
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This seminar will provide an overview of our recent adventures into bio-imaging and analysis with particular focus toward understanding structure and interaction at the scale of a single cell and/or i
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Partner Research Institutions
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au