Robbie has business experience in both the private and public sectors domestically and internationally, and at Board level as a NED and reporting to a Board in the capacity of CEO. With a strong understanding of whole-of-industry value chains, she also has a grazing property in the Upper SE of South Australia. Following ten years living and working in SE Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei), she was self-employed as an agribusiness consultant until her appointment as CEO, Potatoes South Australia in 2012. She continues to consult privately. She believes that the reduction and transformation of food waste is critical to productivity gains, and to the sustainability and reputation of Australian agriculture. She also believes that R&D programs across agricultural sectors and value chains are vital to Australia attaining its $100b production target by 2030.
Her involvement in biosecurity has been extensive including as a representative on Primary Industries & Regions SA (PIRSA) Biosecurity SA’s Plant Health Technical Reference Panel, Market Access Program Working Group, and Stakeholder Reference Group in the development of the new Biosecurity Act for South Australia. She presented at the 2018-19 National Roundtable Forum and has been a witness at Federal Senate Inquiries concerning importation of plant material. She is also a member of the Limestone Coast Landscape Board which has a statutory function for the prevention and management of declared pest animals and weeds.
She was profiled under PIRSA’s Women Influencing Agriculture and Regions in 2015, is the AgriFutures 2016 SA Rural Woman of the Year and is a graduate of the NFF’s Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program 2019.
Robbie holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Additional Board Positions include:
Bruce has over 30 years of experience working in biosecurity, initially as a veterinarian dealing with animal health and production issues and then across the broader biosecurity spectrum of animal and plant pests, diseases and weeds.
His most recent role was as the Deputy Director General Biosecurity and Food Safety with the NSW Department of Primary Industries where he was responsible for biosecurity and food safety strategy and policy development and implementation within NSW. Prior to that he was the NSW Chief Veterinary Officer where he led responses to a number of exotic disease incursions, including the successful eradication of Equine Influenza (EI) from NSW and Australia.
Since 2004, when he was appointed to the position of Director Animal and Plant Biosecurity, Bruce has driven a cross-sectoral agenda aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of biosecurity systems for animals and plants in NSW and across Australia. He also represented NSW on the National Biosecurity Committee, chaired the Environment and Invasives Committee (EIC) for a number of years, and has been a key driver in the development of the national Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity (IGAB) and the National Environmental Biosecurity Response Agreement (NEBRA).
Jan is a leader and strategist for the 21st Century. Her deep experience in innovation, knowledge and enterprise management is fused with a passion for people, teamwork, social justice and especially for rural and remote Australia.
She has a flair for building large, effective partnerships across industry, government, academia and the community to understand and solve major challenges. Jan now works as a strategist and company director with organisations that reflect her broad range of interests.
For nine years she managed Ninti One Limited, a national not-for-profit that delivered notable results for people, industries and communities in remote Australia through research, innovation and enterprise development. Its research findings have helped raise the issues of this vast region (which generates most of our export wealth) along with those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in the national awareness, engendering a new respect and richer dialogue about progress, participation and prosperity.
Jan also worked for more than 15 years as a senior executive in the South Australian Government and was 1997 Telstra Business Woman of the Year (SA Public Sector Category). Her managerial expertise embraces fields such as the arts, Aboriginal affairs, economics, education, energy, knowledge and research management, precision pastoralism, rangelands issues and tourism. She has extensive experience in developing relevant, insightful and compelling reports.
Having lived in Beltana in northern SA, and Alice Springs, NT, she has a particular, heartfelt commitment to building a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and all remote Australians.
Peter is an executive leader and senior lawyer with an international profile developed with prominent global law firms, and seats on numerous boards and executive leadership teams.
He has a notable legal career history of significant matters and executive roles in large complex organisations, and specialisations in governance and risk management, strategic acquisition, integration management, and sustainability. In addition to his legal and executive leadership experience he holds numerous appointments including academic, industrial, business and to the board of a United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative.
Peter has a background working in RD&E management of IP and commercialisation and is also a producer in his own right in the Southern Highlands backgrounding about 100 steers a year. He also uses soil testing to improve pastures and assist in weed eradication.
David has extensive agricultural experience as well as leadership and governance experience spanning 30 years.
This includes Managing Director of Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) 2006 – 2011 during the Free Trade Agreement negotiations in the United States and the development of TRILAMB, a three-country initiative designed to safeguard Australian lamb imports to the United States.
He has a focus on sound administration, good governance of industry funds and a track record of proven communication skills at all levels in the Australian red meat sector. David has held State and Federal advocacy positions, currently holding a number of senior chair and director positions on associated livestock and agricultural industry boards and authorities.
Murray has extensive director, senior consulting and executive experience gained over 25 years in Information Communications Technology, national security, law enforcement, renewable energy and the private equity finance sectors.
Murray will build on the entrepreneurial business and commercial focus of the Board. He is passionate about helping organisations achieve their objectives and deliver stakeholder value through the application of good governance and sound strategy. Murray currently holds Chair and Director positions on eight boards.
Mr Andreas Glanznig is the CEO of the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions (CISS). CISS is the successor to the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre, also led by Mr Glanznig between 2010 and 2017, Australia’s largest integrated invasive animals research and innovation collaboration.
Over its 12-year life, the IA CRC developed a suite of new pest control products including rabbit and carp biocontrol agents, new genetic surveillance techniques, new wild dog, fox and feral pig toxic baits, and strategic knowledge and planning tools to strengthen collaborative regional scale integrated pest management.
Mr Glanznig’s 30 year career has traversed executive science management, policy analysis and advocacy, and strategic communications. Former roles include leading the World Wildlife Fund’s advocacy team on invasive species legislative and policy reform, and an Australian Government policy analyst.
Mr Glanznig has also served as a Director of the Weeds Cooperative Research Centre and the Global Invasive Species Program. He has degrees in Science and Letters, and a Masters of Business Administration.
Lucie Hassall is the General Manager and Company Secretary of the Centre for invasive Species Solutions. In her role she is responsible for the operations of the company including our finances, contracts, governance arrangements, audit and risk analysis and other major activities.
Lucie is a Chartered Accountant who has over 25 years’ experience in the finance industry, including 9 years in the KPMG chartered accounting practice as an auditor and manager and 18+ years in Commercial Business, primarily at Lendlease Corporation. She has held Senior Finance Manager and Head Office accounting positions over the last 18 years focused on Financial Control, Cost Reporting, Risk Management, Office administration, Financial Systems, Management and Statutory Reporting.
Lucie is a member of the Instituted of Chartered Accountants in Australia and holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting and Management) from the University of Technology Sydney
Dr Price has an immense amount of experience in the RD&E sector, with a particular focus on environmental and agricultural research.
Closely aligned to the core objectives of CISS, Dr Price has managed several national agricultural and environmental R&D programs, including Grain & Graze, the National Dryland Salinity Program, National Soil Acidification Program, Integration in Catchment Management Program, Climate Variability in Agriculture Program and a host of government and community based biodiversity initiatives.
Most recently as Research Director & Deputy Director of the Australia-Indonesia Centre, he established a portfolio of energy, health, infrastructure, water and agriculture projects, overseeing over 400 researchers and HDR students across Australia and Indonesia.
Dr Price is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment & Society (Australian National University) and a winner of an Australia Museum National Banksia Award for biodiversity research.
Dr Price was made a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology in 2013 and has sat on Boards of Cooperative Research Centres, NGOs and Committees of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering & Innovation Council.
Frank Exon has extensive communications and marketing experience working at state and national levels.
Before joining the Centre, Frank was National Director for the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) — a nonpartisan, apolitical, not-for-profit member-based organisation promoting excellence and pride in public service across Australia.
Frank has held senior communication roles with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Social Services, and several other Australian Government —and ACT Government — departments and agencies.
Prior to working in communications, Frank held several catchment management roles with the NSW Government based in Braidwood.
Frank has a Master of Arts (Organisational Communication) from Charles Sturt University and received an Executive Dean’s Award for outstanding academic performance in 2016. He also has a Bachelor of Science (Human Ecology / Geography) with First Class Honours from The Australian National University awarded in 1995.
He is the author of ‘A History of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, 1980–2020’, launched by His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Rtd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia in February 2020 to mark the 40th anniversary of IPAA as a national organisation.
Trevor is an experienced Fundraiser and Executive Member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia.
In his role as Fundraising Manager, Trevor leads the engagement of philanthropic supporters to support the efforts of the Centre for Invasive Species through the development of the Invasive Species Solutions Trust.
As an experienced Executive, Trevor has over 25 years of leadership experience, primarily in the not-for-profit sector. His career has provided him with opportunities to serve in Senior Management roles as a member of the Organisation’s Executive and as a Director on several Boards.
He offers knowledge and practical skills in all major forms of fundraising. He has worked as a National Bequest Manager for three years and a Planned Giving Officer and Development Officer for a South Australian University. He has submitted applications for philanthropic grants for multiple organisations in various roles, run major events, has been involved in all aspects of direct mail; he solicited six-figure gifts; been responsible for two capital campaigns and project managed a crowdfunding campaign with a Government Department.
Currently, Trevor is completing a Master of Science (Marketing) from the University of Salford, which has provided him with a framework for his practical experience. Additionally, he has completed a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology major) and Post Graduate Diploma Social Planning from the University of Queensland.
Dr Tony Buckmaster comes from an agricultural background having grown up and worked on the family farm but also has extensive experience in wildlife ecology and strategic pest management as well as 12 years of teaching and research experience.
He currently manages our Centre R&D program and leads our Balanced Research Program. He is also actively involved in several on-going research projects and convenes a Masters level unit in Vertebrate Pest Management for the University of Sydney.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Science – University of Canberra
Honours in Applied Science – University of Canberra
PhD in Ecology – University of Sydney
Cath Walsh has a background in terrestrial and aquatic ecology, environmental impact assessment and management, and also worked extensively with Geographic Information Systems, including weed mapping.
Before joining the Centre, Cath worked as a spatial scientist on the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Her work involved analysing the temporal and spatial patterns of fire ants in South East Queensland, looking at their habitat association, the effect of environmental variables on their spread, and providing advice on scientific strategy.
Cath has also worked for the Queensland Department of Environment and Science, working extensively in the Great Barrier Reef Catchments, monitoring wetland health and water quality, habitat mapping, and assessing the impacts of agriculture, weeds and pests on the landscape. Cath has also had the opportunity to work in Tasmania, where her work involved weed identification and mapping in association with her assessment of development impacts on threatened and invasive species.
Central to her effectiveness is her ability to engage with multiple stakeholders, including government departments at a state and national level, and with natural resource management organisations and community groups.
Cath has a Bachelor of Science majoring in Marine Biology, with Honours in Botany.
Shan Southwell is the Finance and Office Manager of the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions and is responsible for the day to day finance and administration operations of the centre.
Shan has previously worked for organisations such as CARE Australia, The Australian Gas Association and Deloittes. Shan is a member of the Instituted of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand and has Bachelor of Accounting from the Canberra College of Advance Education and a Graduate Diploma in Management Sciences from the University of Canberra.
Sreshti has experience in the social and education development sector in a fundraising, marketing and communications capacity. She is responsible for providing operational support and the delivery of CISS Communication and Marketing Plans.
Sreshti holds the following qualifications:
Aaron comes from a decade long career working as a Bio Medical Technician and Animal Ethics Officer at The John Curtin School of Medical Research as well as Field Ecology Assistant to several conservation projects attached to the Australian National University and Australian Conservation Foundation.
Aaron holds the following qualifications:
Jane Leslie is the Administration Assistant for CISS, providing office support to the finance and executive team. She is also the Executive Assistant to Andreas Glanznig, the CEO.
She has an extensive administrative background, working in a variety of private sector roles.
Tony is an ecologist with a strong interest in the effects of predation on the dynamics of wildlife populations. Predation may be commercial and recreational harvesting, culling or baiting programs, or exotic predators killing endangered prey species.
Other interests include aerial survey, deer management and mouse population dynamics.
Tony is Innovation Leader for the Integrated Landscapes Program. He was Leader of the Land Pests Program of the Invasive Animals CRC and manages Invasive Plants and Animals Research in Biosecurity Queensland.
Tony has a PhD in population ecology from the University of Queensland.
Brad’s current role with the Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA involves leading a team of policy and research staff who work with state and federal government agencies, Natural Resource Management boards and industry groups to provide technical and policy advice on the economic and environmental impacts and management of pest animals, including wild dogs, rabbits and deer.
Prior to this, Brad worked for the SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources for 5 years, implementing its strategic science agenda and providing technical leadership for South Australia’s marine parks monitoring program and other state-wide programs. Brad initially undertook research in the field of marine biology for 15 years, specialising in the ecological effects of commercial fisheries and their interactions with protected species.
During this phase, Brad completed his PhD at LaTrobe University and worked with SA Research and Development Institute – Aquatic Sciences for 10 years.
A molecular virologist by training, Tanja’s research over the past 15 years has focused on mitigating the impacts of invasive vertebrate pest species in Australia, using both lethal and non-lethal, GM and non-GM methods, targeting a series of species from Red foxes to mice, cane toads and in particular rabbits. Her earlier work with CSIRO investigated the development of virally vectored immunocontraception vaccines for foxes and mice, for which she was awarded the Pest Animal Control CRC Chairman’s medal for scientific excellence in 2004 and 2008.
During the past ten years Tanja has driven a combination of applied and basic fundamental research projects focussing on improving our understanding of the diseases used for classical biological control of rabbits. She has built an international track record in the area of rabbit calicivirus biology, ecology, epidemiology, evolution and virulence, which is evidenced in a series of high quality publications and invitations to present at national and international conferences.
Tanja has a PhD in molecular virology from Philipps Universitaet Marburg, Germany
Gillian Basnett has a background in community engagement, science communication, Landcare and natural resource management with extensive experience in wildlife ecology and management and fire ecology. She has spent much of her career in positions that improve environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture through research, hands-on field work, education, engagement and empowerment of the community. Throughout, the management of cats and foxes have been a common theme.
Gill has extensive experience rolling out programs and projects focused on improving habitat, native vegetation regeneration and feral animal and weed control, by partnering with the community and local stakeholders. She has worked across several Australian States on cat and fox issues among other conservation programs, including facilitating the Tasmanian State-wide Community Cat Eradication program while with Tamar NRM.
Qualifications:
Dr Carlo Pacioni is a Senior Scientist in the Wildlife Management Program at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and an adjunct senior lecturer at Murdoch University.
Dr Pacioni, in addition to a background in epidemiology and wildlife disease investigations, has extensive experience in population genetics and modelling. In recent years,
Dr Pacioni has dedicated substantial attention to the use of molecular data for demographic estimation and phylodynamic analyses.
Professor Paul Thomas leads the Genome Editing Program and South Australian Genome Editing (SAGE) Facility at the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.
He is using CRISPR/CAS9 genome editing technology for a range of applications including development of synthetic gene drives for suppression of invasive mammalian pests, generation and analysis of mouse models for epilepsy and development of genetic therapies for inherited muscle and eye diseases. He has published more than 100 scientific articles (>9,000 citations) and is supported by competitive funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.
Dr Annelise Wiebkin has background with Biosecurity SA leading senior policy, technical, research and management work across SA.
Prior to Biosecurity SA, Annelise work ranged terrestial and marine NRM from the tropics to the Antarctic.
Annelise brings boundless enthusiasm as well as strengths in engaging groups with diverse values.
Dr Wu is a Principal Research Scientist and a group leader in weed research and management at Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, NSW DPI. He has been active in weed research since 1997 and has diverse research experience in chemical ecology, weed biology, genetic diversity, herbicide resistance and weed management. He is a globally recognised expert in the biology and management of many important agricultural and environmental weeds such as flaxleaf fleabane and silverleaf nightshade. He has supervised a large number of research projects funded by various funding bodies such as GRDC, MLA, RIRDC and CRDC. Many of these multidisciplinary research projects involve the collaboration between taxonomists, social and economic scientists, molecular geneticists and weeds professionals from various organisations.
Dr Wu also leads an impressive outreach program, promptly disseminating research results to growers, Ag-advisors, Weed/NRM officers, academic peers and other stakeholders through Research updates, field days, workshops, grower’s articles, professional conferences, media interviews and academic publications. The active research dissemination has significantly benefited farmers, agricultural and scientific communities.
Dr Peter Adams has >16 years research experience focusing on applied ecology, with the aim of improving our understanding of the physiology, behaviour and impact of vertebrate pests to inform and improve current conservation and pest management strategies. Peter has participated in a range of scientific research on vertebrate pests including pigs, foxes, cats, and deer. In particular, Peter has focused on the impacts of feral pigs, investigating the abundance and digging activities of feral pigs on different landscapes, as well as methods for controlling and managing these impacts. More recently, he has been involved in research to evaluate the efficacy of thermal sensors to detect and monitor feral pigs and other vertebrate pests. Peter is currently a Development Officer with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and works to facilitate coordinated and improved vertebrate pest management by community-led groups. This involves the adoption of ‘best practice’ management and innovative technologies to improve control efficiency.
Qualifications:
BSc in Biotechnology (Honours 1st Class)
PhD Veterinary Parasitology
Currently working with the West Australian Department for Primary Industries and Regional development, Susan is an ecologist with over ten years’ experience in the field of invasive pest animal research. Her research primarily focusses on preventing new incursions of starlings, an invasive pest bird, into the western third of Australia, Susan is also the West Australian co-ordinator for rabbit biological control and she collaborates closely with other CISS researchers who are currently investigating biological and genetic alternatives for control of established pest animals. With an Honours degree and PhD in microbat conservation from the University of Melbourne, Susan also has a keen interest in the direct and indirect conservation benefits ensuing from improved pest animal management.
Dr Agus Sunarto obtained his PhD in virology from the University of Queensland and was head of Fish Health Research Laboratory within the Indonesian Ministry of Fisheries before joining the CSIRO in 2013. Agus is a senior research scientist in the Managing Invasive Species & Diseases Program within the CSIRO Health and Biosecurity. His research interests include viral biocontrol of invasive fish. Currently, he is investigating the application of cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) as a potential biocontrol agent for carp and tilapia lake virus (TiLV) for tilapia. Agus is based at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong, Victoria.
Andrew has more than 20 years’ experience in botany, vegetation mapping and surveying and strong skills in GIS. He has spent much of career being an environmental consultant, where has had previous roles developing software for environmental management purposes.
Through his work as an environmental consultant, Andrew has travelled throughout Australia and has documented both native vegetation and non-native plants including weeds. To cover such a geographic range and to remember so many species, Andrew long ago committed to building databases and virtual herbariums to record his observations. These records now account for more than 5000 species including most weed species. His work as a consultant also included consultation with landholders about the economic and environmental impact of weeds. Andrew has worked to raise awareness of many poorly known weedy species with weed control authorities.
Andrew will be based in Canberra at both the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions HQ and CSIRO Black Mountain Laboratories, however he will be spending a large amount of time in the field taking photos of invasive plants as part of the project in its developmental stages.
Lynette is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of New England. Her primary research field is environmental psychology, concentrating on the application of human behaviour change approaches to improve current extension and adoption practices. Current research projects have covered a variety of environmental and agricultural issues, including domestic cats, wild dogs, widespread weeds and chemical spray application. Lynette has over twenty five years of experience working in invasive mammal management with NSW DPI, Local Land Services and community groups. In 2017 she completed a PhD on human behaviour change and domestic cat containment.
Tracey is a wildlife ecologist who has being researching for over a decade. Coming from an academic and government background Tracey is a versatile researcher who has worked with a range of native and invasive species in conservation and agricultural environments.
Tracey completed her honours and PhD on endangered mammals and tree declines at Murdoch University, Perth. Tracey has also worked on a range of wildlife species whilst a fauna conservation officer with Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions for many years. More recently, Tracey was a post-doctoral researcher at Murdoch University investigating wild canids and their impact on agriculture. This research looked at land holder canid control practices, bait efficacy, guardian animals and learned aversion behaviours around wild dogs, feral cats and foxes.
Currently, Tracey is a research scientist with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development focusing on wild dog management in farming and pastoral areas. Her research investigates a range of management tools from fencing, canid pest ejectors, non-lethal deterrents to using whole system approaches. Whilst in the Department Tracey has also been involved in feral pig management, thermal imagery and industry engagement.
In 2020 Tracey will travel to South Africa as a Winston Churchill Fellow to investigate predator management in agricultural and farming contexts.
Dr Pat Taggart is a Research Officer (rabbits) with the Vertebrate Pest Research Unit (Biosecurity and Food Safety) of the NSW Department of Primary Industries. His primary role is to investigate interactions between RHDV2 and other RHDVs and its potential as an additional rabbit biocontrol agent.
Since 2011, Pat has worked within the field of environmental consulting and sub-contracting conducting targeted and general fauna surveys for various government and non-government organisations, both within Australian and internationally.
More recently Pat completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide which investigated factors influencing the presence of cat-borne diseases in wildlife, livestock and people. Over the years, Pat has developed extensive experience in trapping, catching, handling and sampling a wide range of native and exotic wildlife.
Qualifications:
Matt has been actively involved in natural resource management for the past 18 years. He has expertise in coastal and estuarine management and biosecurity and threatened species policy and management Australia-wide.
Matt has worked within the public and private sectors, as well as for NGOs and research institutes. Over the past 10 year he has held national coordination roles where he has worked extensively with local, state and national governments, community groups and industry. He has established extensive networks in NRM across Australia.
Matt is passionate about improving how natural resource management issues are communicated. He works tirelessly to ensure consultation process are meaningful, so that participants feel empowered, take ownership of the issue and are motivated to work collectively towards a common outcome. Matt enjoys being the conduit between policy makers, researchers and land managers, ensuring that the needs and expertise of each party is communicated and used to make strategic decisions which will lead to the best possible outcomes.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from LaTrobe University and a PhD from the University of Tasmania.
Dr Ruscoe works as an ecologist for CSIRO at Black Mountain, Canberra.
Her research is focused on the understanding the ecology and impacts of pest animals in both agricultural and conservation settings.
Her primary expertise is in wildlife ecology, quantitative analysis of ecological data, and modelling population dynamics and species interactions (plant-herbivore, predator-prey).
She has worked for 15 years at Landcare Research in New Zealand studying trophic level interactions among pest species, principally competition between exotic rodents and possums, and predation effects of higher order pests (ferrets, stoats, cats) on meso predators (rodents). This involved large scale manipulation experiments in indigenous forests and fragmented agricultural grasslands. Other projects revolve around measuring the benefit of management agency pest control measures for native biota and translating this into monitoring and management plans for agencies involved in biodiversity protection and reporting.
She has a PhD in ecology and population genetics of cane-field rats in sugarcane crops.
Simon is an experienced senior manager who has focussed on applying and commercialising research and development (R&D) outputs for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, animal health, agricultural chemical and veterinary medicines industries. Simon was a Program Leader at the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre where he effectively engaged government agencies, industry, and other stakeholders to successfully manage a portfolio of projects aimed at reducing the impact pest species have on animal health and biosecurity.
Simon holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (hons), a PhD in Medicine, and was awarded a prestigious Professional Fulbright Scholarship in 2017.
Elise is a post-doctoral research fellow with over 15 years’ experience in molecular genetics. She strives to develop high quality, rigorous scientific methods and apply them to wildlife management problems. Elise was one of the first researchers in Australia to develop techniques to analyse environmental DNA (eDNA) and was instrumental in the creation of eDNA facilities at the University of Canberra to enable high-sensitivity detection of trace DNA. She has applied a single-species approach to infer the presence or absence of native and invasive species (including detection of invasion fronts and confirming eradication success), and is currently working on using eDNA to infer the abundance of fish species in waterways. Elise has also employed metabarcoding to detect the presence of multiple species simultaneously and has applied this to determine the diet composition of various species and to detect biodiversity at a site.
Elise completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and PhD in Genetics at the University of Melbourne.
Michelle is an accomplished scientist, manager, consultant, and in conservation ecology. She has worked nationally and internationally with governments, industry and community to provide implementable solutions to ecological problems from endangered species recovery to incursion prevention.
Her recent published research includes, determining pathways of incursion, probability of detection, and establishing what motivates animals to move.
She developed and implemented a national incursion management program, the foundation of which is effectiveness, simplicity and collaboration.
Michelle has a PhD (University of Sydney), and BAppSC, Hons with Distinction (Curtin University).
Mark began his career in the UK in the early days of gene cloning as part of the team that studied vaccines for malaria (Holder et al, 1984, Nature). He came to Australia and CSIRO following the impact of postdoctoral bringing over technology to identify the bacterium that causes the wasting disease of cattle and sheep known as Johne’s disease.
New opportunities in CSIRO allowed to explore the emerging field of RNA interference and microRNA biology. His group was the first to catalogue the microRNA repertoire of the chicken (Glasov et al, 2009, Genome Research), a model system in which he later developed a novel approach to tackle bird ‘flu. As the new era of gene editing began his lab has lead the way with new approaches to disease control in poultry and an interesting spin-off, a new method to remove males from the egg-layer industry without having to hatch and cull day-old chicks (the current practice). Many of these development, though called for by industry, are yet to go into practice, as industry and the public grapple with what GM and gene editing mean in an animal food context.
With the advent of “CRISPR/Cas9”, and the ease of applying gene editing in poultry, Mark has broadened his horizons to take a look at how these techniques might be applied in the genetic control of vertebrate pests. His current interests are in gene editing in the cane toad and exploring the possibilities of the new gene drive technology for fish and rodent pests.
Peter is a Senior Research Officer and Invasive Species Officer (Engagement) within the NSW Department of Primary Industries, in Orange. He has 20 years’ experience in invasive species research and wildlife management. He is a national facilitator and project leader for the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, working to empower communities, develop community surveillance technology, support networks, build community capacity and design citizen science programs to involve community in invasive species management. He recently received a prestigious national Banksia Award for innovation in citizen science.
Greg Mifsud is the National Wild Dog Management Coordinator funded through the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions through a co-investment model that includes WoolProducers Australia, Australian Wool Innovation Ltd, Meat and Livestock Australia, Animal Health Australia, Sheep Producers Australia and the Cattle Council of Australia.
Professor Hine specialises in environmental psychology, research methods, and statistics. His research focuses on understanding the factors that underlie environmental problems such as resource over-consumption, climate change, air pollution, and invasive species. His research group designs and evaluates behaviour change strategies to help solve these problems.
An ecologist and author of a number of published journal articles, reports and book chapters, David holds the position of Research Officer with the Natural Resources Management Biosecurity Unit of the Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA). David primarily undertakes research on rabbits focussing on improving their control by the RHDV and myxomatosis biocontrols through an ongoing 21 year project at Turretfield in SA. He has also surveyed invading cane toads in SW Qld, mapped rabbit warrens for destruction, undertaken landscape fox control, planned and assisted in the reintroduction of the western quoll (Dasyurus geoffroii) to SA, surveyed landholders about feral deer and helped address numerous other pest animal issues.
David has fulfilled a diverse range of roles throughout his career including Technical Officer, National Park Ranger and Research Fellow. He completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Wildlife and Park Management), followed by a Diploma in Natural Resources in 1990, and a PhD in 2003 focusing on “The search for a novel toxicant in Gastrolobium (Fabaceae: Mirbelieau) seed historically associated with toxic native fauna”. An outcome from this PhD research is a current collaborative project to develop a toxic ‘population protecting implant’ to remove predating feral cats and stop them wiping out reintroduced or vulnerable native fauna populations.
Tarnya has participated in research projects on a variety of species including flying foxes and rodents in northern Queensland, mice in South Australia, grey squirrels in the UK and rodents in Cambodia. Tarnya’s previous research has included identifying prey species of owl through bone fragments, the role of flying foxes in the transmission of Leptospirosis, and the use of predator scents to deter vertebrate pests from palatable feed. Current research includes assessing the impact of biological control tools on rabbits and the use of emerging technologies to improve pest animal detection.
Tarnya has a PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Vertebrate Pest Management from the University of QLD.
Paul completed his under-graduate Degree at Roseworthy in SA, a Master’s Degree on the biology and ecology of foxes, free-roaming dogs and cats in Jervis Bay at University Canberra and completed his PhD at the University of New England on camera trapping. He was awarded the Chancellors Post-Doctoral Research Award for his PhD research. Paul has been working in the ecology field for over 30 years in positions throughout Australia and has been fortunate to work overseas, including 3 years on Christmas Island. He is currently working for NSW Dept Primary Industries in the Invasive Plant and Animal Unit; he is a research collaborator of the Vertebrate Pest Research Unit and CISS, and an Adjunct Lecturer with the University of New England. Primary work roles are developing policy framework for pest management that integrate new research findings into control and monitoring. He also contributes to research that benefits pest management and impact monitoring, conducting training and working with all pest agencies throughout Australia to develop best practice. Paul is Project Leader for the Wild Dog Alert and e-Hub Intelli Trap Projects.
Areas of expertise include, camera trapping, predator trapping, small mammal trapping, radio tracking, fox, wild dog and feral cat ecology, Hastings River Mouse and Christmas Island shrew ecology.
Paul was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2011 investigating the use of camera traps in wildlife research and monitoring.
Dr Matt Gentle (BAppSci, PhD) is a Senior Zoologist at the Pest Animal Research Centre, Biosecurity Qld, in Toowoomba, Queensland. Matt started his career at NSW DPI and subsequently completed his PhD on fox baiting practices on the central tablelands of New South Wales. Since 2004 his work has focused on investigating the ecology, impacts and management of pests including feral pigs, foxes, wild dogs and feral cats in Queensland.
Dr Forsyth has over 20 years experience in wildlife management and research. Since gaining his PhD in New Zealand in 1997 Dave has conducted a variety of long-term projects in Australia and New Zealand, focusing on understanding how to manage the impacts of overabundant large herbivores. Prior to joining the NSW Department of Primary Industries in 2016, Dave led the Wildlife Management Program at the Victorian Government’s Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. There he supervised projects investigating the distributions, abundances and impacts of deer. Dave has been contracted to provide research and technical advice on vertebrate pests to a variety of state, national and international agencies.
Dave Ramsey is a quantitative ecologist conducting research primarily related to the population dynamics and management of vertebrate pest species. After completing his PhD in 1996 he worked for 11 years in New Zealand at Landcare Research working primarily on the population dynamics and epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in brushtail possums. During this time he was also a member of the technical advisory group for the New Zealand Animal Health Board from 2005 to 2006 advising on strategies for the eradication of bovine Tb from wildlife. Since 2007 he has been working at the Arthur Rylah Institute in Victoria where I work on a range of wildlife management issues. He has worked with both The Nature Conservancy (USA) and Island Conservation (USA) developing structured frameworks for quantifying pest eradication success on offshore islands.
Qualifications: BAppSc (distintiction) 1988, QUT; PhD 1996, QUT
Dianne is a wildlife geneticist, with 18yrs of research experience in the application of DNA technologies for biodiversity conservation outcomes in both New Zealand and Australia.
Her career focus has been facilitating the translation of fundamental research into outcomes for end-users. Previously at Landcare Research NZ, she developed a successful business unit, EcoGene, resulting in a national award for Women in Science Entrepreneurship.
Currently she leads a team at the Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, which is focused on the development of eDNA technologies for individual species detection and whole community analysis in freshwater systems.
Qualifications:
PhD, Australian National University;
BSc University of Auckland.
Peter Caley has a background in applying quantitative methods for addressing contemporary problems in the environmental sciences. This has included the development and application of statistical methods to generate quantitative inference where previously, qualitative assessments dominated. His current research areas include applying Bayesian Hierarchical methods for inferring population trends in mobile species, developing methods for monitoring small populations, and using citizen science for species surveillance.
Peter has key statistical skills needed for making inference from ecological monitoring data.
Qualifications
02 6216 7063
Phill is a leading global change biologist. He has published extensively (>200 papers) on the conservation, transport and trade in animal species. Phill leads a research intensive laboratory at the University of Adelaide.
He teaches extensively in ecological research and research methods, and is the coordinator for the University of Adelaide’s Bachelor of Science Advanced program. Phill has been awarded a large number of competitive international research project and training grants (totalling more than AU$6M).
Phill is an experienced scientific communicator and regularly engages with stakeholders, media, and scientific forums.
Malcolm has worked in the field of ecology for over twenty years. He undertook a Bachelor of Science (Hons) at Macquarie University and PhD in Natural and Rural Systems Management at the University of Queensland. He has been employed in a range of roles in universities and private and government conservation organisations, and worked across invasion ecology, predation and fire ecology. He is now employed as a Research Officer with Biosecurity Queensland. His current research includes a strong focus on wild dog management but also includes work on large feral herbivores, feral pigs and new incursions.
Malcolm is the Project Leader for the Queensland Cluster Fencing project.
Elena is a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra and CSIRO working on rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus as part of the Centre’s Balanced Researcher Program.
Elena graduated from the Faculty of Medicine Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2018.
For her honours project Elena went to Finland and worked on oncolytic viruses at the University of Helsinki faculty of Pharmacy. She did her bachelor’s project on poliovirus, revealing how important is the interaction of one if its non-structural proteins with its genome for viral replication.
Egi received her BSc in Biology from Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia in 2011.
She completed her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2017 where she studied the repair and regeneration process of airway epithelium following aerosol-based stem/progenitor cell therapy in acute lung injury model.
Egi joined the rabbit biocontrol team at CSIRO in 2018 as a Postdoctoral fellow. Her current project focuses on developing rabbit organoid culture to study the replication and infection mechanism of rabbit caliciviruses.
Katherine completed her Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Adelaide, and continued on to complete her Honours. For her honours, she studied using emerging forensic techniques to determine the origins of a highly invasive exotic species, the red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans). This involved using stable isotopes to identify if a slider incursion was a recently released captive animal, or is from an established wild population.
Katherine is now an early-stage PhD candidate in the Invasion Science and Wildlife Ecology group at the University of Adelaide, supervised by Associate Professor Phill Cassey. Her work involves investigating the pet trade of native and exotic birds, and continuing to develop the use of stable isotopes as a forensic tool for determining wild or captive origins.
Born and raised in Canberra, Jack completed a Bachelor of Psychology and an Honours in Applied Science at the University of Canberra. Throughout his Honour’s year, Jack developed molecular techniques capable of detecting the highly endangered corroboree frog from water samples, which he then used to infer reintroduction success of captive bred populations released into the wild.
Jack has been working as a research assistant as part of the EcoDNA group at the Institute for Applied Ecology. He conducts fieldwork across Australia collecting eDNA samples for various projects such as the National Carp Control Plan, monitoring of macro-invertebrates along the Murray River, and eDNA detection of the Macquarie Perch throughout Abercrombie NP. He also conducts lab work using single-species molecular approaches to inform the presence or absence of native and invasive species, and metabarcoding techniques to assess diet composition of sea birds.
Jack is now completing a PhD at the University of Canberra through the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, under the supervision of Dr Dianne Gleeson and Dr Elise Furlan implementing, eDNA and metabarcoding techniques across a diverse range of taxa and ecosystems. His PhD is funded through our Centre.
Moses is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate at Murdoch University under the tutelage of Prof. Trish Fleming, Dr Halina Kobryn, Dr Malcolm Kennedy and Dr Tracey Kreplins. As part of CISS, his research project is on “Wild dog management and trophic interactions in landscape-scale cell fencing”.
He intends to quantify relationships underpinning wild dog densities and, the native and introduced herbivores within the Murchison Regional Vermin Cell (MRVC) on Western Australian Southern Rangelands, and hopes to develop empirical data to support the relationships between varying wild dog control efforts and total grazing pressure.
Moses has a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Ecology, and a Bachelor’s Degree (First Class Hons) in Animal and Environmental Biology, both at the University of Benin, Nigeria.
Moses emerged as the Best Graduating Student during his first degree. Consequently, after his National Youth Service (NYSC) year, he was awarded an appointment as a Graduate Assistant in 2015 at the University of Benin, then upgraded to the position of Assistant Lecturer in 2017 after his Master’s Degree.
I was born and raised in Lima, Peru. I graduated from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with specialization in Microbiology and Parasitology, followed by a Master degree in Microbiology. After graduation, I spent nine years working as research assistant at NAMRU-6, Peru, where I obtained a strong research background in laboratory assays, emerging disease surveillance and epidemiology.
I enrolled at LaTrobe University Microbiology PhD program in March 2018, working under the guidance of Karla Helbig, PhD and Teresa Carvalho, PhD. Also, my PhD project is part of the Arthur Rylah Institute (Carlo Paccioni, PhD) and the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions (CISS).
My research project focusses in to know the role of wild deer in the transmission of pathogens to livestock in Australia. I will use a range of molecular biology techniques and bioinformatics tools to detect and classify the blood microbiome in wild deer and livestock, moreover study the possible epidemiological implications.
Background
I am an early-stage Higher Degree Research student who has studied and worked in South Australia since 2013. My undergraduate Honours project (completed in 2017 under the supervision of Associate Professor Phillip Cassey) used hierarchical modelling to predict the distribution of an endangered Cunningham’s skink (Egernia cunninghami) population under future climate change. Since then I have collaborated with citizen scientists to improve conservation outcomes for this species and attended multiple conferences in order to emphasise the importance of occupancy-detection monitoring.
Ph.D. Project
As part of CISS, I am currently undertaking a project entitled: ‘Understanding and intervening in illegal trade in non-native species’, which investigates Australia’s role in the spread of potentially invasive species via the illegal wildlife trade. By developing open-source data mining techniques, I aim to analyse online e-commerce platforms to identify broad temporal and spatial trends in the quantity and species diversity of exotic species traded within Australia as well as native species traded internationally. My long-term research objective is to reduce both the opportunity and incentives that have allowed the online illegal wildlife trade to thrive.
Qualifications:
