A University of Queensland researcher has been awarded one of only eight national prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) 1998 special investigator awards.
Associate Professor Craig Moritz of the University's Zoology Department will receive $1 million over five years in recognition of his international standing in research productivity and achievement.
Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs Dr David Kemp said the awards aimed to recognise highly-rated investigators with an exceptional track record in research productivity and a consistent history of attracting ARC large grant support, with excellent ratings through their careers.
'By providing researchers with the freedom of a one-line large grant, of the order of at least twice the average grant size for the discipline, researchers have the chance to undertake over five years a flexible program of innovative research activities which would not normally be possible through individual grants,' he said.
Awards ranging from $130,000 to $370,000 per annum will also be made under the scheme to researchers at the University of New England, Monash University, James Cook University of North Queensland, the University of New South Wales, University of Western Australia, University of Sydney, and the University of Western Sydney.
Dr Moritz is director of the University of Queensland's Centre for Conservation Biology and is also a program leader in the Co-operative Research Centre for Tropical Rainforest Ecology Management. He will use his award to study molecular genetics and methods for conservation of Australian fauna.
He said genetics surveys of natural populations could assist to protect and restore endangered Australian species and their habitats.
'In the past decade our ability to measure genetic variation between species has increased exponentially,' he said.
'New technologies such as DNA sequencing and fingerprinting provide the opportunity to understand the history as well as current dynamics of populations, but it is not clear how best to interpret and use this information.
'This funding will allow me to develop and refine theory as it applies to recently disturbed fauna populations, and to undertake experimental studies on model species including rainbow fish, cane toads and Australian drosophila (fruit flies), to determine how to manage individual species.
'The project will combine theory and experiments to determine how to detect recent separation of populations, whether molecular pattens can guide translocations, and how to prioritise areas for conservation.'
A University of Melbourne graduate (bachelor of science, 1979), Dr Moritz was awarded a PhD in evolutionary genetics at Australian National University in 1985, before taking up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan from 1985 to 1988 and then joining the University of Queensland.
His diverse research subjects include new DNA techniques; theatened macropods such as yellow-footed rock wallabies; bilbies; marine turtles; geckos and skinks; bird species such as silvereyes and scrub wrens; rainbowfishes; ghost bats; coconut crabs; root-knot nematodes; and the effects of fragmentation on rainforest species.
With a background in evolutionary biology, molecular systematics and conservation biology, he has published extensively, authoring several books and more than 80 scientific publications.
Dr Moritz has co-edited books on Conservation Biology with Emeritus Professor Jiro Kikkawa of the University of Queensland in 1994 (this book won the Whitley Award in 1995) and Molecular Systematics (with David Hillis of the University of Texas in 1996). He is editor of three international journals, Molecular Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Molecular Biology and Evolution, and serves on several other editorial boards.
He has been continuously funded by the Australian Research Council for many years, usually with multiple grants, and has received substantial funding from applied sources including conservation agencies.
His currently funded ARC projects include a study of the population genetics of cane toads (with Dr Simon Easteal of John Curtin Medical School); a study of Australian rainbowfish (with Dr Craig Franklin of the University of Queensland) and a study of silvereye colonisation in the south-west Pacific (with Dr Sandy Degnan and Dr Ian Owens of the University of Queensland). He also holds ARC collaborative grants (with Drs Hamish McCallum and Anne Goldizen of the University of Queensland on endangered macropods such as the bridled nail-tailed wallaby; and with Professor Gordon Grigg and Nancy Fitzsimmons on conservation and captive management of crocodiles.
For further information, contact Dr Moritz, telephone 07 3365 3382, email cmoritz@zoology.uq.edu.au
