A University of Queensland professor has been elected to the Australian Academy of Science, the nation’s peak scientific body.
Professor Hugh Possingham, who is jointly appointed across two UQ schools, Physical Sciences and Integrative Biology, was the only Queenslander among the 16 new Fellows appointed to the Academy this year.
The appointment recognises Professor Possingham as a leader in the field of applied theoretical ecology and his seminal contributions to advances in marine conservation planning.
Professor Possingham said he was honoured by the appointment and that the world-leading research undertaken by UQ’s Ecology Centre had been recognised.
“One example of the Centre’s internationally-recognised research products is MARXAN conservation planning software that was used to underpin rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last year.
“This software is downloadable free-of-charge from the Centre’s website and is being used to plan for marine and terrestrial conservation in over 50 countries.”
Professor Possingham and his group are developing new theories and tools for marine conservation planning that account for ecological threats such as coral bleaching, global climate change and nutrient pollution.
He said it was important for ecologists to maintain their mathematical and computational skills if they wanted to make a worthwhile contribution to science and society.
“Having a research group that has expertise in ecology and mathematics has enabled us to tackle and solve many problems in nature conservation such as how to best monitor declining species, optimal translocation of animals from the zoo to the wild, landscape reconstruction for threatened fauna, and how to allocate conservation funds across global biodiversity hotspots,” Professor Possingham said.
Other scientific fields recognised by the Australian Academy of Science appointments include medical innovations, nanosystems, computer vision, disease resistant plants and atmospheric processes. Only 16 leading scientists from universities, CSIRO and medical research institutions across Australia are elected to the Academy each year following a rigorous and competitive process.
Media: For further information contact Professor Hugh Possingham (telephone 07 3365 9766, email h.possingham@uq.edu.au) or Lynda Flower (telephone 07 3346 7264, email l.flower@sps.uq.edu.au)
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