ESA2024 ECE Careers Forum – Speakers

(Listed alphabetically, by surname)

Josh Griffiths

Josh is a Senior Wildlife Ecologist at EnviroDNA and has been researching platypuses for almost 20 years, including the development of new monitoring tools such as eDNA.

Lincoln Kern

Lincoln was trained in botany and environmental science Antioch University in Ohio USA and Deakin University in Melbourne and has been working in the environmental field in Victoria on a full-time basis since 1991 including time with the Merri Creek Management Committee, the National Trust Save the Bush Program and Greening Australia Victoria. Lincoln has run Practical Ecology Pty. Ltd. since 1993, offering an integrated ecological restoration contracting and consulting service for managers of native vegetation and developers as required. He provides realistic land management advice because of extensive experience with costing, planning and doing the required physical works and implementing the processes of reconciling development and nature conservation objectives with staff and the public.

Dr Sam Lloyd

Sam is Principal Scientist with Healthy Land and Water (the regional Natural Resource Management body for south-east Qld), and an author. Sam has over two-decades experience in research, education and management in ecology, bushfire and NRM. Sam recently published her first children’s book, Alight: A Story of Fire and Nature (CSIRO Publishing).

Dr Irene Martín-Forés

Irene, an invasion ecologist at the University of Adelaide with extensive international collaborations, specialises in impact of biological invasions on native plant communities.

Dr Marissa Parrott

Marissa, Senior Conservation Biologist at Zoos Victoria, works to research and recover threatened species in wild populations, and captive breeding and reintroduction programs.

Jack Pascoe

Jack is a Yuin man and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Natasha Robinson

Natasha is Principal Scientist Conservation for NSW DCCEEW. Her research includes fire ecology, reintroduction biology and more recently, arboreal marsupials and arid zone ecology.

Dr Freya Thomas

Freya is a Senior Urban Forester at The City of Melbourne. She has previously been titled ‘Research Fellow’ and ‘Scientist’ but likes being called a quantitative plant ecologist.

Gerry Turpin

Gerry is a Mbabaram Traditional Custodian of north Queensland and has familial links to Wadjanbarra Yidinjii and Nadjon on the Atherton Tablelands, and Kuku Thaypan on Cape York Peninsula. As Senior Ethnobotanist, he leads the development of the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre (TIEC) in the Australian Tropical Herbarium (ATH) at James Cook University, Cairns. The ATH is a joint venture between James Cook University, CSIRO, and the Queensland Government. He has been employed by the Queensland Government for over 30 years and during that time, acquired a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Botany at University of Queensland, Brisbane, and is currently completing a Master of Philosophy ((Medical and Molecular Sciences) with James Cook University.

Gerry’s current work as a Senior Ethnobotanist entails travelling to Indigenous communities to engage and foster relationships, and to record and document traditional plant knowledge. Gerry also acts as a bridge between Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge and Western Science to bring researchers and other organisations to partner with traditional owner groups in collaborative research.