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

Future proofing and restoring Australia’s tropical seagrasses (Old ID 27805)
Alana Grech
01 Jan 2023 - 31 Dec 2026
This project aims to develop and apply a comprehensive framework for restoration of Australian tropical seagrasses using innovative approaches and partnerships. The project expects to provide coastal managers with tools to mitigate and restore seagrass to minimise effects of climate and development related loss, protecting ecosystem services measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. Expected outcomes include new techniques for tropical seagrass restoration, a blueprint for seagrass friendly marine infrastructure, and restoration decision tools applied at local and regional scales. This will provide significant benefits by protecting seagrass ecosystem services and place Australia at the forefront of global seagrass restoration efforts.
Taxonomic assessment of corals in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory (Old ID 28958)
Peter Cowman
08 Mar 2023 - 30 May 2024
Document the species richness of the coral fauna of Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) islands (Australian Indian Ocean Territory), with a focus on identifying new species, species endemic to the region or vulnerable to threats due to low abundance or limited distributions.
Expert technical advice regarding project water quality and catchment modelling (Old ID 31066)
Scott Smithers
03 Jul 2023 - 03 Feb 2026
The project is to provide expert technical advice regarding the water quality and catchment modelling components of the Environmental Impact Statements for the proposed Big Rocks Weir, the raising of the Burdekin Falls Dam and the methodology behind the cumulative impact assessment.
Does the emotional state of male Melomys cervinipes affect their spatial learning and navigational abilities? (Old ID 22610)
Tasmin Rymer
01 Feb 2016 - 31 Dec 2016
The loss of environmental complexity in tropical rainforests due to anthropogenic deforestation is a major threat to mammals. How an animal copes with these changes may be dependant on integrated physiological, behavioural and cognitive responses to environmental stimuli. The aim of this study is to investigate whether environmental complexity influences these responses of Melomys cervinipes. I predict that animals from complex habitats will demonstrate lowered anxiety and stress and will show enhanced learning and performance in a cognitive behavioural task. This study is the first to investigate the links between environmental complexity, physiology, behaviour and cognition in an Australian mammal.
Pathogen Genomics North Queensland (Old ID 26564)
Matt Field
03 Jul 2019 - 03 Dec 2020
This project will develop pathogen genomics to improve time to best treatment of serious infectious diseases. We aim to incorporate pathogen genomics into the workflow of clinical microbiology units in regional Queensland Health Hospitals for investigation of potential or known infectious disease.
Stress and problem solving in Melomys cernipes (Old ID 26571)
Tasmin Rymer
01 Jul 2019 - 30 Jun 2020
We know surprisingly little about how stress and anxiety affects animals' problem solving abilities, and what this means for their survival. Without understanding this, we cannot accurately predict whether species will have the capacity to cope with increasing problems associated with environmental change. I will investigate how stress and anxiety affect problem solving. These data are important to help us understand whether animals can use their problem solving abilities to cope with environmental changes.
A low power flexible sensor network system for viticulture (Old ID 22420)
Mohan Jacob
04 Apr 2016 - 05 Sep 2020
While many researchers are focusing on wireless sensor networks as the core component of on-farm sensor networks, these systems suffer from high maintenance due to the number of units required, each with their own batteries and charging systems. For viticulture, where sensor strings can be run down rows, I propose a wired system capable of driving 1000's of sensors from a single sensor master. There is a gap in the types of sensors currently available in viticulture research and routine that the proposed development would meet.
Coral recovery dynamics on post-bleach coral reefs (Old ID 27474)
David Bellwood
01 Apr 2022 - 31 Mar 2024
I will use a long-term data to investigate what determines patterns of coral settlement and survival in Lizard Island. 1) Investigate the fate of juvenile corals settled after the back-to-back bleaching events in the Island. 2) I will deploy current meters to provide hydrodynamic data to determine whether currents are able to explain the uneven distribution of recruits. 3) These current data will be combined with detailed 3D photogrammetry to generate small-scale digital photomosaic to estimate if and, to what extent multi-scale topographical details may interact with currents to determine the distribution, fate and growth of recruited corals.
Tropical forest flammability and post-fire recovery (Old ID 27657)
Susan Laurance
01 Mar 2022 - 31 Dec 2022
This project aims to quantify the shoot-level flammability of tropical forest species across a range of growth forms via experimental burns and assess which plant functional traits influence high or low flammability. The expected outcomes of this research include an understanding of the relation between plant traits and species and growth form flammability, which will help inform fire management and revegetation efforts in the wake of increased tropical and subtropical forest bushfires. The overall significance of this research is to build on previous rainforest flammability data and provide experimental data that may eventually be used in larger scale flammability modelling.
Impacts of a volcanic eruption on coral reef fisheries in a co-managed fishery-system (Old ID 27870)
Patrick Smallhorn-West
01 Jan 2023 - 01 Jan 2025
In January 2022, a massive submarine volcanic eruption occurred in the Kingdom of Tonga, causing widespread damage from both ashfall and tsunami waves. For 20 years prior to this eruption, the Tongan government has worked closely with local communities to manage and conserve the countries coral reef ecosystem and reef fisheries. In the wake of this acute disturbance, I aim to: 1)understand how coral reefs and their fisheries respond to massive acute disturbances, and 2)investigate whether local marine management measures can mitigate observed impacts. Ecological surveys of fish and reef health will be conducted across the country’s coral reefs, both within and beyond managed areas, at varying distances from the eruption epicentre.
Title: JCU reef scientist goes global after plumbing the depths, Townsville Bulletin
Reseracher: Gemma Galbraith (AIMS@JCU Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reef Connectivity)
Start Date: 10 Nov 2024
Title: Deep dive: How I use robots to survey coral reefs, Nature
Reseracher: Gemma Galbraith (AIMS@JCU Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reef Connectivity)
Start Date: 31 Mar 2025
Title: Bengali
Reseracher: Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad (Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering and Related Technologies))
Title: English
Reseracher: Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad (Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering and Related Technologies))
Title: Wet Tropics Management Authority - Scientific Advisory Committee
Reseracher: Nathan Waltham (Associate Professor, Blue Carbon)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
Title: Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF), Australia
Reseracher: Simon Das (Research Fellow - Grouper Nutrition)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
End Date: 01 Jan 2027
Title: ARC Future Fellow ($680,000), Global Change: Rainforest responses to experimental drought
Reseracher: Susan Laurance (Professor, Personal Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: American Society of Naturalists
Reseracher: Megan Higgie (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2003
Title: PhD, James Cook University
Reseracher: Alana Grech (Professor)
End Date: 01 Jan 2010
Title: Bachelor of Environmental Science (Honours), The University of Adelaide
Reseracher: Alana Grech (Professor)
End Date: 01 Jan 2003