College of Science & Engineering

Sophia Love

Sophia Love

Romain Vaucher

Romain Vaucher

Jenny Fisher

Jenny Fisher

Ambili Narayanan

Ambili Narayanan

Sarfaraz Ali

Sarfaraz Ali

Mikaeylah Davidson

Mikaeylah Davidson

Liuxin Chen

Liuxin Chen

Rafael Cabral Carvalho

Rafael Cabral Carvalho

Tom Lloyd

Tom Lloyd

Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani

Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani

Development of a culture based fishery for giant freshwater prawn in Sri Lankan reservoirs (Old ID 23638)
Clive Jones
01 Oct 2017 - 30 Sep 2019
Giant freshwater prawn (GFWP) - Macrobrachium rosenbergii is a high value aquaculture species suited to culture-based fishery stocking into reservoirs in Sri Lanka. The project will develop a science based stocking strategy of hatchery reared juvenile prawns, to improve the yields of GFWP in reservoirs and design and use of fishing gear that will prevent damage to the animals. Socio-economic research will lead to a better understanding of the value chain to enable further improvements to the fishery. The research will ensure the fishery is profitable, efficient and sustainable in the long term. The research is part of an ACIAR Small Research Activity (SRA) that will form the basis of a larger, full four year project to follow on in 2019.
Carbon dioxide removal through the enhanced weathering of basalt in acidic soils under sugarcane
Paul Nelson
01 Feb 2025 - 01 Feb 2028
Enhanced weathering (EW) offers a potential negative emissions technology. Modelling suggests significant carbon dioxide removal (CDR) but requires field verification. This study quantifies CDR through EW of basalt and examined the influence of soil pH. The experiment received five annual basalt applications of 50t/ha since 2018 and 2.5t/ha lime in 2022. Drainage flux meters were installed to capture leachate during the 2022/23 wet season, and bicarbonate was measured, indicating CDR. Cumulative bicarbonate was not significantly influenced by basalt or lime. CDR was negligible compared to potential bicarbonate generation, with strong acids found to limit in-field CDR. Nitric and organic acids found aligned with fertiliser application, microbial activity and plant root exudation. Acidic soils may require amelioration for CDR through EW, although the neutralising effect of basalt application may reduce CO2 evasion.
Carbon dioxide removal through the enhanced weathering of basalt in acidic soils under sugarcane
Paul Nelson
01 Feb 2025 - 01 Feb 2028
Enhanced weathering (EW) offers a potential negative emissions technology. Modelling suggests significant carbon dioxide removal (CDR) but requires field verification. This study quantifies CDR through EW of basalt and examined the influence of soil pH. The experiment received five annual basalt applications of 50t/ha since 2018 and 2.5t/ha lime in 2022. Drainage flux meters were installed to capture leachate during the 2022/23 wet season, and bicarbonate was measured, indicating CDR. Cumulative bicarbonate was not significantly influenced by basalt or lime. CDR was negligible compared to potential bicarbonate generation, with strong acids found to limit in-field CDR. Nitric and organic acids found aligned with fertiliser application, microbial activity and plant root exudation. Acidic soils may require amelioration for CDR through EW, although the neutralising effect of basalt application may reduce CO2 evasion.
Macroalgal removal for reef restoration (Old ID 26442)
Hillary Smith
14 Oct 2019 - 13 Oct 2020
This project investigates the potential for restoration of reef ecosystems around Magnetic Island. It aims to remove macroalgae at varying frequencies and monitor changes in coral recruitment to develop best practices for the large-scale implementation of the technique to restore coral reefs impacted by macroalgal phase shifts. This grant is to support the project funded by Earthwatch Australia by increasing funds for field work.
The Science of Seafood: STEM Pathways through Aquaculture
Jarrod Guppy
03 Apr 2025 - 03 Apr 2026
To support the growth of Northern Australia’s Aquaculture industry, which will require between 1400 and 2300 new STEM-skilled staff by 2030 (CRCNA No.A.1.2021014 Report), this project will engage high school students in a series of interactive workshops designed to showcase aquaculture and highlight its range of attractive STEM career pathways. The workshops will be offered in key regional hubs of Queensland for aquaculture and economic development, including Cairns, Rockhampton, Whitsundays, and Townsville. Workshops will be structured as interactive, hands-on sessions at schools, designed to balance theoretical learning with practical application. The project goals are to raise awareness of aquaculture among the next generation and inspire students to pursue studies and careers in the field.
‘Planim Fiuja fo Yumi’ - Co-planning climate-smart and equitable livelihood futures with small-scale fishing communities through a participatory and integrated approach to community engagement. (Old ID 30038)
Bethany Smith
22 Jan 2025 - 03 Feb 2030
The project will implement a Participatory and Integrated Planning Approach (PIPA) trialled in a previous ACIAR project. The PIPA aims to equip small-scale fishing communities with the information, resources and capacity to pro-actively and autonomously strengthen their livelihoods towards more equitable, sustainable and climate-smart outcomes. The PIPA is underpinned by a risk-based spatial analysis that is used through participatory engagement activities to support a joint understanding of risk and strengths within local land and seascapes. The approach draws on local knowledge, decision making and governance arrangements to enhance customary community-based livelihoods planning, assessment, prioritising and action processes. This project will seek to adapt and extend the PIPA across Solomon Island contexts, and leverage opportunities to scale to other countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
‘Planim Fiuja fo Yumi’ - Co-planning climate-smart and equitable livelihood futures with small-scale fishing communities through a participatory and integrated approach to community engagement. (Old ID 30038)
Amy Diedrich
22 Jan 2025 - 03 Feb 2030
The project will implement a Participatory and Integrated Planning Approach (PIPA) trialled in a previous ACIAR project. The PIPA aims to equip small-scale fishing communities with the information, resources and capacity to pro-actively and autonomously strengthen their livelihoods towards more equitable, sustainable and climate-smart outcomes. The PIPA is underpinned by a risk-based spatial analysis that is used through participatory engagement activities to support a joint understanding of risk and strengths within local land and seascapes. The approach draws on local knowledge, decision making and governance arrangements to enhance customary community-based livelihoods planning, assessment, prioritising and action processes. This project will seek to adapt and extend the PIPA across Solomon Island contexts, and leverage opportunities to scale to other countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
‘Planim Fiuja fo Yumi’ - Co-planning climate-smart and equitable livelihood futures with small-scale fishing communities through a participatory and integrated approach to community engagement. (Old ID 30038)
Stephanie Duce
22 Jan 2025 - 03 Feb 2030
The project will implement a Participatory and Integrated Planning Approach (PIPA) trialled in a previous ACIAR project. The PIPA aims to equip small-scale fishing communities with the information, resources and capacity to pro-actively and autonomously strengthen their livelihoods towards more equitable, sustainable and climate-smart outcomes. The PIPA is underpinned by a risk-based spatial analysis that is used through participatory engagement activities to support a joint understanding of risk and strengths within local land and seascapes. The approach draws on local knowledge, decision making and governance arrangements to enhance customary community-based livelihoods planning, assessment, prioritising and action processes. This project will seek to adapt and extend the PIPA across Solomon Island contexts, and leverage opportunities to scale to other countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Develop an autonomous AI vehicle damage assessment tool (Old ID 26683)
Ickjai Lee
29 Nov 2019 - 27 Nov 2020
Development of a practical means and method for automated detection, identification and categorisation of vehicle panel damage using AI, deep learning and selected semantic segmentation networks. Semi-Supervised methods will be investigated to minimize the requirements on hand made training data (archived damaged vehicle images) and research will be conducted to determine the possibility to build a minimum viable product (MVP) directly onto the existing platform architecture.
Assessing recovery in threatened Australian amphibians and reptiles
Conrad Hoskin
01 Jan 2025 - 31 Dec 2027
Biodiversity loss is occurring at unprecedented levels. Worldwide, human activities have ushered in the sixth mass extinction event, and driven swathes of species to the brink of extinction. In Australia, the condition of the environment is poor and declining, with the key threats to biodiversity being habitat loss, invasive species, altered fire regimes, and climate change. As a result, Australia is both a biodiversity hotspot, with 8% of the world’s species, and an extinction hotspot with 100 confirmed extinctions, and a further ~2,000 species threatened with extinction. For 60 years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species has provided the global standard approach for assessing the extinction risk of species. The IUCN Red List provides an internationally accepted language for assessing the likelihood of a species going extinct, that can be used across all plant and animal groups, and regions of Earth. Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) uses the IUCN Red List methodology to determine its list of threatened species. But whilst the IUCN Red List is an extremely effective way in which to assess a species’ risk of extinction, it was not designed to assess species recovery nor assess the value and effectiveness of conservation actions. Why is measuring species recovery important? Avoiding extinction is only the first stage of successful conservation—ultimate success requires maintaining viable and functional populations, and achieving the recovery of declining and depleted populations. Indeed, the Federal Government’s Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032 is focused on more than simply preventing new extinctions, but also ensuring that threatened species are “on track for improved trajectory” (2027 Target 1). However, recent attempts to measure recovery of the Australian fauna, using de-listing under IUCN Red List criteria as a proxy for recovery, have proved extremely controversial. Crucially, we argue that this is because such studies have been using the wrong approach to measure species recovery. In fact, there is a much more meaningful method for measuring species recovery, recently developed and tested by the international conservation community: the IUCN’s Green Status of Species (GSS). The GSS metrics complement the IUCN Red List, extending its existing conservation language, ecological theory, and criteria to assess how far a species is from being fully recovered (Fig. 1). The GSS also provides a way to determine the benefit of past and future conservation efforts. Critically, although the GSS approach has been adopted under the international Convention on Biological Diversity as a key indicator for measuring species recovery, it is yet to be integrated into the Australian EPBC Act or state-based conservation policy, nor any other country’s legislation.
Title: Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution
Reseracher: Peter Cowman (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2019
Title: JCU Biosafety Committee
Reseracher: Peter Cowman (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2017
End Date: 01 Jan 2019
Title: Associate Editor---Allergo Journal International (Springer)
Reseracher: Ludwig Lopata (Professor, Personal Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2016
Title: PhD Geology, University of Bern
Reseracher: Anne Kaufmann (Adjunct Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2015
End Date: 01 Jan 2020
Title: MSc Geosciences (Mineralogy / Petrology), Goethe University Frankfurt a.M.
Reseracher: Anne Kaufmann (Adjunct Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2012
End Date: 01 Jan 2015
Title: Chair, IEEE Northern Australia Section
Reseracher: Mohan Jacob (Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
End Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: Volunteer Scientific Officer for the Qld Fire and Emergency Services
Reseracher: Peter Junk (Distinguished Professor; Nevitt Professor of Chemistry)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2021
Title: Small nutrients, big impact: why micronutrients matter in grouper farming, ACIAR NEWS
Reseracher: Simon Das (Research Fellow - Grouper Nutrition)
Start Date: 15 Jul 2026
Title: Office for Learning and Teaching Citation for outstanding contributions to student learning.
Reseracher: Yvette Everingham (Professor, Promotional Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: Associate Editor, Journal of Organometallic Chemistry
Reseracher: Peter Junk (Distinguished Professor; Nevitt Professor of Chemistry)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2023