Threatened Species Scientific Committee members

The members as of February 2009 are:

Associate Professor Bob Beeton (Chair)
Dr Guy Fitzhardinge
Dr Gordon Guymer
Professor Peter Harrison
Dr William Humphreys
Dr Antony Lewis
Dr Rosemary Purdie
Dr Andrea Taylor
Associate Professor Keith Walker
Dr John Woinarski

Associate Professor R.J.S. (Bob) Beeton (QLD)

Associate Professor Beeton was appointed to the Committee in July 2000. He is the current Chair of the Committee. Associate Professor Beeton is employed by the University of Queensland. From 1998 to 2002 he was foundation Head of the School of Natural and Rural Systems Management. He has held numerous other appointments. Currently he is Chair of the Australian State of Environment Advisory Committee, a Member of the Australian National Research Priorities Standing Committee, Participating Observer on the Australian National Natural Heritage Trust Advisory Council, Participating Observer on the Australian National Land and Water Audit Advisory Council, Deputy Chair, Atherton Tablelands Sustainable Regions Advisory Committee.

Associate Professor Beeton has conducted short courses and consultancies for industry and government. He regularly works with local government and community groups in regional Australia. His current research interests are environmental problem solving, and sustainability issues associated with both natural and rural systems and rural and regional communities.

Associate Professor Beeton received the 1994 University of Queensland Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2000 University of Queensland Affirmative Action Commendation, and in 2000 was elected a Fellow of the Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand.

Associate Professor Beeton's curriculum vitae (PDF - 170 KB)

Dr Guy Fitzhardinge (NSW)

Dr Fitzhardinge was appointed to the Committee in September 2003. Since 1976, Dr Fitzhardinge has been the Managing Director of the Thring Pastoral Company. He is currently a Director of the Australian Bush Heritage Trust, Chairman of the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetics and a member of the Australian Biological Resources Study Advisory Committee.

Dr Fitzhardinge continues to be a member of the National Advisory Panel for the World Wildlife Fund Threatened Species Community Program and has previously served as a member of the National Assessment Committee for the Endangered Species program. Dr Fitzhardinge is an ex Vice President of the Australian Rangeland Society and previous Director of the Meat Research Cooperation and Meat and Livestock Australia. Dr Fitzhardinge was the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship in 1992 and awarded the Cowra and Region Landcare Prize in 1994. In 2008 he was awarded a Ph.D for his research into the ethnographic relationship between the social system and the ecosystem in the Rangelands of Australia.

Dr Gordon Guymer (QLD)

Dr Guymer was appointed to the Committee in May 2008. Dr Guymer is the Director of Biodiversity Sciences, Queensland Environmental Protection Agency. He is a botanist with 30 years experience in biodiversity research, management and policy. He has a comprehensive knowledge of Queensland’s plant biodiversity, vegetation and factors affecting management and maintenance of biodiversity and environmental values, and has extensive management experience of biodiversity programs and projects. He has published 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including contributions to Flora of Australia and has described two new plant genera and over 100 plant species new to science.

Dr Guymer is a member of the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (1990–present), the Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment working group of the National Land and Water Audit, Queensland’s Vegetation Management Consultative Committee, the Executive Steering Committee Australian Vegetation Information, and a board member of the Australian Tropical Herbarium and the Centre for Native Floriculture. He was previously a member of the Flora of Australia Editorial Committee (1989–1994) and the Australian Biological Resources Study Advisory Committee (1994–1999).

Professor Peter Harrison (NSW)

Professor Harrison was appointed to the Committee in September 2005. Professor Peter Harrison is the Director of Marine Studies at Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Director of the Coral Reef Research Centre and the Whale Research Centre at SCU. Professor Harrison is a marine ecologist with 29 years experience in marine research, teaching, postgraduate supervision and consultancy work, and has been awarded more than $3.7 million in research and consultancy grants, the majority from ARC and other national and international competitive grants. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, books, review chapters and technical reports, which have been cited more than 2,100 times. Prof Harrison has been awarded multiple prizes for research and University teaching, including a joint Eureka Prize for Environmental Research for the discovery of the mass coral spawning phenomenon on the Great Barrier Reef. Throughout 1995, he was the Project Leader for a UN funded mission to assess the impacts of the first Gulf War on the coral reefs of Kuwait, and has also worked in many areas of the Great Barrier Reef, Japan, Palau, Arabian Gulf, Bahamas, French Polynesia, Maldives, PNG and New Caledonia. Professor Harrison is a member of the National Marine Science Centre Board, and IUCN CEM (Oceania). He has successfully supervised 29 PhD, MSc and Honours students including multiple University and Chancellor's PhD medallists. His main areas of research and supervision are marine biology and ecology, including global patterns of coral reproduction, impacts of pollutants and stress, long-term monitoring of reef communities, whale and dolphin ecology and conservation, dispersal and biogeography of reef corals and implications for connectivity among marine protected areas. He also has substantial research and teaching experience with estuarine, freshwater and terrestrial ecology topics.

Dr William Humphreys (WA)

Dr Humphreys was appointed to the Committee in November 2006. Dr Humphreys is currently Adjunct Professor at the School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia and Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide. He has experience of marine, freshwater and terrestrial fauna, both as a researcher and teacher, and has published widely on both invertebrate and vertebrate taxa. Dr Humphreys has worked in a range of environments including tropical (Africa, Seychelles, Papua New Guinea and Australia), temperate (Europe and Australia), arid (Western Australia, Northern Territory), mediterranean (Greece and Western Australia) and humid (Papua New Guinea, Kimberley and New South Wales) climates. To date, he has edited 4 books, and authored 36 chapters, over 100 peer-reviewed papers, 36 consultancy reports and in excess of 40 other publications.

Dr Humphreys is a board member of the Centre for Groundwater Studies and serves on the Editorial Board of the Records of the Western Australian Museum and the international journal Subterranean Biology. He is also Vice-President of the International Society of Subterranean Biology. Dr Humphreys is currently a member of the Western Australian Scientific Advisory Committee for Threatened Ecological Communities and also serves on a number of other Western Australian-based advisory groups and recovery teams.

Dr Antony Lewis (QLD)

Dr Lewis was appointed to the Committee in November 2006. Dr Lewis is an independent fisheries advisor whose previous expertise in various Pacific Island and South East Asian countries includes fishery resource assessment and all aspects of fisheries development and management. His long-standing interest has been the ecology, population dynamics and management of tunas and other scombrid fishes. Dr Lewis' work as a fisheries consultant and previous employment with the SPC Oceanic Fisheries Programme (New Caledonia), Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authority, and Fiji Fisheries Division has involved extensive research and travel throughout Australia, South East Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Lewis currently serves as Chairman of the Western Tuna and Billfish Management Advisory Committee (eastern Indian Ocean) for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and has Visiting Professorial status at the University of Wollongong. He has published numerous articles in refereed scientific journals, technical reports, and a large amount of grey literature prepared for a variety of audiences. He has also acted as primary editor of organization publications, frequently served as a reviewer for various international scientific publications and has given numerous keynote addresses at international fisheries fora.

Dr Rosemary Purdie (ACT)

Dr Purdie was appointed to the Committee in September 2003. Dr Purdie has a background in botany, ecology, and natural and cultural heritage conservation, and currently works as a private consultant. She is an Associate at the CSIRO/ANBG Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, and was the ACT's Commissioner for the Environment from June 2004 to December 2006. She has held positions for the Murray Darling Basin Commission as Director of Natural Resource Evaluation and Communication and Director Integrated Catchment Management Business and Knowledge Management. She was previously Deputy Executive Director of the Australian Heritage Commission and Assistant Secretary of the Australian and World Heritage Group, Department of the Environment and Heritage (formerly Environment Australia). Dr Purdie was a member of the ACT Flora and Fauna Advisory Committee from 1999 to 2004 and chaired the committee from 2001. She also served as a member of the ACT's Environment Advisory Committee and Natural Resource Management Committee.

Dr Purdie has acted as science adviser to the Earthwatch Institute, been a Vice President of the Ecological Society of Australia and an Associate Editor for the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management. She is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the latter. She has written over 70 published and unpublished reports/articles across broad environmental topics including: fire ecology, plant taxonomy, botanical and ecological resource analysis and description, nature conservation reserve selection, natural heritage assessment methodologies, state of the environment reporting, and natural resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Dr Andrea Taylor (VIC)

Dr Taylor was appointed to the Committee in September 2005. She is a wildlife population geneticist and molecular ecologist with long experience in the use of genetic markers to distinguish and characterise taxa, particularly marsupials. Her 60 primary research publications and reviews relate to use of genetic analysis to resolve issues ranging from species relationships, dispersal, mating systems and population size (via DNA profiling of remotely collected field samples) to impacts of habitat fragmentation and other landscape changes on population dynamics and viability. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University where she leads an active research group examining these questions.

Associate Professor Keith Walker (SA)

Associate Professor Walker is a river ecologist with 35 years experience, mainly at The University of Adelaide. Originally a zoologist, he has engaged with colleagues in botany, hydrology, geomorphology and engineering to develop ecological perspectives of the effects of flow regulation on the River Murray and its floodplain. He has published 140 peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles and about 100 non-refereed articles, mainly on the fauna, flora and ecology of the Murray. He has supervised 120 Honours and postgraduate students in research on the Murray, and continues in that role.

He left the University in 2007 to write about natural history, and to work as an environmental consultant, and is now an Adjunct Member of the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences. Associate Professor Walker was Editor of the international journal River Research and Applications from 1986-2006, and of the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia from 2001-2002. He received the Australian Society for Limnology Medal for Research in 1993, the University's Stephen Cole Prize for Teaching in 1992 and the Unsung Hero of South Australian Science award from Australian Science Communicators in 2000. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia.

His appointments include the South Australian Water Resources Council(1980-1986), Environment Protection Council of South Australia (1989-1993), Natural Areas Evaluation Panel (SA) (1994-97) and other committees and panels concerned with environmental issues. He has been involved in FAO (UN) and AusAID projects in China and Thailand. He is presently a member of the Independent Commission on river-health issues, and is undertaking a review of EPBC species implicated in a proposal to dam the Mary River in Queensland.

Dr John Woinarski (NT)

Dr Woinarski was appointed to the Committee in September 2003. Dr Woinarski is an authority on the fauna of northern Australia. He is currently Principal Scientist with the Northern Territory Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment, and a project leader of the Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre. He has published over 120 scientific papers and book chapters, mostly on the ecology, biogeography and management of mammals and birds, but also on a very broad range of other subjects including invertebrates, reptiles, plants, reserve design, fragmentation, forestry, biodiversity monitoring, and island biogeography. He leads an active research unit that examines options for biodiversity conservation on Aboriginal lands and on pastoral lands and undertakes biodiversity monitoring, bioregional survey and conservation planning. In 2001, his work was recognised with the Australian Museum's Eureka Prize for biodiversity research and in the same year he was awarded the Birds Australia Serventy Medal for life-time contribution to Australian ornithology.

Dr Woinarski has been active on a range of national committees, currently including: the Science Council of the Wilderness Society's Wildlands Project; the Biodiversity Assessment Technical Working Group of the National Land and Water Resources Audit; the steering committee of the Natural Heritage Trust project examining the effects of tree-clearing on wildlife in the northern Brigalow Belt; and the Scientific Taskforce on the National Reserves System.

About the Threatened Species Scientific Committee

Biodiversity