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

Coral Sea Bright Spot Reef Health and Resilience Survey – 2022-24 (Old ID 27830)
Eva McClure
23 Nov 2022 - 31 Dec 2024
The Coral Sea Marine Park (CSMP) covers approximately 990,000 km2 and includes over 30 individual reef systems that are surrounded by deep waters. Extensive bleaching of corals was recorded across shallow reef habitats within the CSMP in 2020 and 2021. This project will use surveys of benthic, fish and invertebrate communities to assess the ongoing effects and potential recovery from these back-to-back bleaching events.
Intensive Breeding Potential of Redclaw Crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus: Evaluation and Improvements of Egg and Embryo Quality, and In Vitro Fertilization Perspectives (Old ID 27486)
John Cavalieri
07 Feb 2022 - 31 Dec 2023
The commercial expansion of redclaw is hampered by suboptimal methods used to produce fertilised eggs, asynchronous hatching, and mortalities of juveniles. This project seeks to characterise female broodstock fertility and improve hatchery productivity by developing tools to assess egg and embryo quality, induce gonadal maturation and egg release using dietary supplementation and hormonal treatments and by establishing artificial fertilization techniques. The study outcomes include validation of tools to select for egg quality and to develop strategies to facilitate synchronised spawning of redclaw within hatcheries to enhance reproductive performance and facilitate intensification of production.
Conservation genetics and population trends in the endangered Mahogany Glider (Petaurus gracilis) (Old ID 27035)
Conrad Hoskin
31 Aug 2020 - 26 Oct 2021
Forest clearances has resulted in severe habitat fragmentation that threats population connectivity and genetic diversity of Mahogany Gliders, an endangered gliding possum endemic to Australian Wet Tropics. Using species distribution modelling, we aim to map the glider’s current theoretical distribution, and based on that, conducting fieldworks to collect DNA samples from different populations. These DNA samples enable us to do fine-scaled genomic analyses to estimate the population size and structures of the Mahogany Gliders, and to know whether the population suffers from inbreeding. Knowing these information helps to identify important corridors to connect populations and guide future conservation plans.
NESP Tropical Water Quality Research Plan 7 (Old ID 27291)
Nathan Waltham
24 May 2021 - 30 Jun 2021
The National Environmental Science Program Tropical Water Quality Hub, funded by the federal government, has funded a wide variety of research projects during its operations from 2015-2021. As this programme draws to a close, there is a need to repatriate the knowledge and learnings from these research projects to relevant stakeholders and end-users. This project will undertake a series of meetings and workshops with end-users to enable the outcomes of research to be adopted. This engagement process will include analysis and synthesis of data collected to date.
Can species interactions drive rapid niche evolution? (Old ID 23427)
Conrad Hoskin
01 May 2017 - 30 Apr 2018
Climate change can alter the distribution of speies and cause novel interactions This project will test whether such interactions can actually drive adaptation to the changing environment. Two Australian fruitfly species will be lab-reared separately and together along a thermal resource gradient. Estimates of each species' niche will be obtained. Using experimental evolution, resource space will then be manipulated to create competition and test whether either species/ niche will evolve into new space. A shift of either species beyond its former niche limits would provide evidence of the potential for evolutionary rescue via rapid adaptation to changing environmental conditions.
Can species interactions drive rapid niche evolution? (Old ID 23427)
Megan Higgie
01 May 2017 - 30 Apr 2018
Climate change can alter the distribution of speies and cause novel interactions This project will test whether such interactions can actually drive adaptation to the changing environment. Two Australian fruitfly species will be lab-reared separately and together along a thermal resource gradient. Estimates of each species' niche will be obtained. Using experimental evolution, resource space will then be manipulated to create competition and test whether either species/ niche will evolve into new space. A shift of either species beyond its former niche limits would provide evidence of the potential for evolutionary rescue via rapid adaptation to changing environmental conditions.
Dugald River Mine Pre-Baseline Limnology Assessment and Design (Old ID 20419)
Nathan Waltham
30 Apr 2012 - 30 Nov 2021
This project covers completion of mine site recon and preliminary limnology assessment of local rivers within and adjacent to Dugald River mine site operation. The data collected during this pre-baseline assessment will be used in the design of a full baseline limnology survey, scheduled to be completed before mining operations commence. The full baseline survey will support the development of mine site closure targets.
Developing Deep Learning Applications for Smart Aquaculture (Old ID 27329)
Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi
01 Jul 2021 - 30 Jun 2024
This project proposes to use deep learning technology to extract various data in commercial environments in a non-intrusive and cost-effective way from fish farms. Currently, most of the fish data is analysed manually. The aim is to use deep learning to extract useful features and traits of fish and to analyse the collected data automatically and efficiently. The project will be in direct partnership with our industry collaborators across Australia and Asia.
Using portable long-read sequencing to diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease in regional North QLD Using portable long-read sequencing to diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease in regional North Using portable long-read sequencing to diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease (Old ID 27478)
Matt Field
21 Jan 2022 - 28 Jul 2024
This project addresses the early diagnosis of genetic predispositions for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), which poses an increasing burden on the North Queensland population and unequally affects the Indigenous Australian peoples. We will develop a mobile diagnostic pipeline that allows a rapid and cost-efficient screening for genetic CKD predispositions and circulating biomarkers using a targeted, DNA/RNA long-read sequencing approach.
Using portable long-read sequencing to diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease in regional North QLD Using portable long-read sequencing to diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease in regional North Using portable long-read sequencing to diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease (Old ID 27478)
Paul Horwood
21 Jan 2022 - 28 Jul 2024
This project addresses the early diagnosis of genetic predispositions for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), which poses an increasing burden on the North Queensland population and unequally affects the Indigenous Australian peoples. We will develop a mobile diagnostic pipeline that allows a rapid and cost-efficient screening for genetic CKD predispositions and circulating biomarkers using a targeted, DNA/RNA long-read sequencing approach.

Series solutions for seepage in three dimensional aquifers

Urban crime analysis through areal categorized multivariate association mining

Family by environment interactions in shell size of 43-day old silver-lip pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima), five families reared under different nursery conditions

Low genetic variability within and among populations of the brooding sponge Rhopaloeides odorabile on the central Great Barrier Reef

Movement and distribution of young bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas in a variable estuarine environment

A spatial assessment of the risk to a mobile marine mammal from bycatch

The Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, Sousa chinensis (Osbeck, 1765), in Australian Waters: a Summary of current knowledge

No behavioural compensation for fitness costs of autotomy in a lizard

An efficient iterative scheme for series solutions to Laplacian free boundary problems

Role of building codes and construction standards in windstorm disaster mitigation

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