WildCountry Science Council

The WildCountry Science Council provides the overarching conceptual framework for WildCountry, conducts WildCountry related scientific research and provides scientific advice and support for the work of Wilderness Society staff on the ground.  All Science Council members contribute their time in a voluntary capacity.

The membership of the Science Council, in alphabetical order, is:

Dr Joern Fischer
TBA

Professor Richard Hobbs 
Chair in Environmental Science, School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University.
       
Professor Hobbs' current work focuses on management and rehabilitation of remnant vegetation in agricultural areas, and landscape-scale restoration planning and management. He has also worked for CSIRO for 16 years, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. 

Dr Sarah Legge
TBA
       
Dr Rob Lesslie 
Senior Research Scientist, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Commonwealth Government.
       
Dr Lesslie is an expert on wilderness and natural resource assessments. He was the architect of the Commonwealth Government's National Wilderness Inventory Program. He has held positions with the University of Adelaide, National Parks and Wildlife Service of South Australia, and as a private consultant.
           
Professor Brendan Mackey     
Professor of Conservation Biogeography, School of Resources, Environment and Society, Australian National University
       
Professor Mackey's research includes the scientific basis of ecological integrity, landscape ecology, the carbon cycle, and biodiversity conservation evaluation and planning. He is the chair of the International Earth Charter Education Advisory Committee, and co-chairs the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Environmental Law Commission's Specialist Ethics Group. He is the Associate Editor for Environmental Conservation, an international journal of environmental science.  He leads the ANU WildCountry Research and Policy Hub.    
http://sres.anu.edu.au/people/mackeyb.html
        
Professor Helene Marsh
Dean, Postgraduate Studies and Professor of Environmental Sciences, James Cook University , Townsville

Professor Marsh’s major research interest is the application of ecology to the management of marine, coastal and terrestrial wildlife species (notably dugongs, sea turtles and native mammals) and their habitats, especially in relation to their distribution and abundance, life history, diet and movements. She previously worked for the University of Queensland, the CSIRO, and was a program leader for CRC Reef Research Centre's Conserving World Heritage Values Program and Education Program.

Prof Marsh has received an international award, a Pew Charitable Trust Award for marine conservation for working with indigenous people of the northern Great Barrier Reef and reef management authorities to develop a framework of sustainable management of dugongs and green turtles.

Professor Henry Nix AO (Co-Chair) 
Emeritus Professor and Visiting Fellow, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University
   
Professor Nix's career has been based on land management, agriculture and ecology. He worked for CSIRO for 25 years, and was the Director of the prestigious Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University. He has given invited lectures and keynote addresses in 26 countries. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute for Agricultural Science, and received a Gold Medal from the Queensland Agricultural College Council, the Urrbrae Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to Australian agriculture, a Gold Medal from the Ecological Society of Australia and the AURIS Eminent Individual Award.  He was a finalist in the Bulletin’s “Smart 100” – Australia’s Brightest Talents in 2003; and was awarded an Order of Australia for "for services to the environment, particularly the conservation of natural resources, and to land management through the development and application of simulation models for ecologically sustainable land utilisation" in 2000.

Dr Janet Norman
TBA

Professor Hugh Possingham 
Professor of Mathematics and Zoology, and Director of The Ecology Centre, University of Queensland
       
Professor Possingham is an applied mathematician and ecological modeller. He was the Foundation Chair and Head of Department for the Department of Environmental Science, University of Adelaide. He is an Australian Research Council Professorial Research Fellow, has been the Chair of the Federal Government's Biological Diversity Advisory Committee, has been Vice President of the Ecological Society of Australia, and has served on the Editorial Boards of five scientific journals. He has jointly won the POL Eureka Prize for Environmental Research in 1999, has been awarded the Inaugural Fenner Medal for Plant and Animal Science (Australian Academy of Science) in 2000 and the Australian Mathematics Society Medal in 2001.  Prof Possingham was recently elected to a prestigious Fellowship of The Australian Academy of Science.        
http://www.ecology.uq.edu.au/?page=20910
        
Professor Michael Soulé (Co-Chair)   
Emeritus Professor, Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
       
Professor Soulé is referred to as the "Father of Conservation Biology". He founded the Society for Conservation Biology and the major scientific journal Conservation Biology, and co-founded The Wildlands Project (USA). He has had Fellowships with the Wildlife Conservation Society (New York), the California Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Zoological Society, was a Smithsonian Regent's Fellow, and had a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has received the Archie Carr Medal and the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award for Science, and was named by Audubon Magazine as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century.
   
Dr Regina Souter
Science Leader, Coastal Cooperative Research Centre, Brisbane

Dr Trevor Ward
Marine scientist, consultant, Perth

Dr John Woinarski 
Principal Research Scientist, Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory; Project Leader, Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre
       
Dr Woinarski is an expert on northern Australian ecology. He has been awarded both the Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research (recognising national pre-eminence in biodiversity research), and the Serventy Medal (for a lifetime contribution to research on Australian birds), in 2001. He is on the Kakadu Research Advisory Committee, is Chair of the Science Advisory Committee of the Northern Territory Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment, and is on numerous other committees and steering groups.  http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/wildlife/science/researchstaff/biodiversitynorth/drjohnwoinarski.html