Threatened Species Scientific Committee members

The current members are:

• Professor Helene Marsh (Chair)
• Dr Sarah Legge (Deputy Chair)
• Dr Rhonda Butcher
• Professor Kingsley Dixon
• Dr Rachael Gallagher
• Professor Richard Harper
• Professor Christopher Johnson
• Professor David Keith
• Dr Nicola Mitchell
• Associate Professor Brett Murphy
• Professor Colin Simpfendorfer
• Professor Stephen van Leeuwen

Emeritus Professor Helene Marsh FAA FTSE (Qld) (Chair)

Professor Helene Marsh was appointed to the Committee as Chair in August 2011. She is a conservation biologist with some 40 years’ experience in research into species conservation, management and policy with particular reference to tropical marine and terrestrial wildlife of conservation concern. The policy outcomes of her research include significant contributions to the science base of dugong conservation in Australia and internationally. Her research also provided the conceptual basis for the 'Back on Track' Program conducted by the Queensland government. Helene is committed to informing interdisciplinary solutions to conservation problems and has collaborated widely with colleagues in other disciplines.

Helene is a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Science (Vice-President, Biological Sciences) and Technological Sciences and Engineering and has received national and international awards for her research and conservation. She is the natural heritage expert on the Australian delegation for the World Heritage Committee and Co–chair of the IUCN Sirenia Specialist Group. She is on the editorial boards of Conservation Biology (Regional Editor), Endangered Species Research and Oecologia.

Helene retired as Dean of Graduate Research at James Cook University (JCU) in 2018. She is now Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science at JCU. Her publications include two books, 170+ papers in professional journals, ~50 chapters in refereed monographs/conference proceedings, more than 30 papers in conference/workshop proceedings, plus numerous technical reports and popular articles. Helene has been on the supervisory committees of about 100 honours and research students (including 56 PhDs to successful completion) and 12 postdoctoral fellows.

Professor Sarah Legge (WA)(Deputy Chair)

Professor Sarah Legge was appointed to the Committee in October 2012. She is Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the Australian National University, Professorial University Fellow at Charles Darwin University, and Principle Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. She is a Deputy Director of the NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Sarah is a wildlife ecologist with 30 years of research and conservation management experience. She worked originally in behavioural and evolutionary ecology (evolution of sociality, mating systems, sex allocation, siblicide, intra-tropical migration). Over the past 15 or so years, her research has aimed to improve our understanding of the impacts of threats (especially fire and feral animals) on threatened and declining species, and to develop ways to address those threats at landscape scales. Sarah developed a regional fire management project that won the WA State Environment Award, and she was awarded the Serventy Medal by Birdlife Australia for her contribution to ornithological research. She worked in the non-profit conservation sector for over a decade, with a focus on the on-ground delivery of conservation management and research.

Sarah is a member of several advisory committees for conservation organisations or projects, including the Christmas Island Cat Eradication Project Advisory Committee, the Purnululu World Heritage Area Advisory Committee, Birdlife Australia’s Threatened Species Committee, and Bush Heritage Australia’s Science and Conservation Committee. She also sits on the Australian Government’s Feral Cat Taskforce.

Dr Rhonda Butcher (Vic)

Dr Rhonda Butcher was appointed to the Committee in November 2020. She is an aquatic ecologist with over 30 years of experience. Rhonda began her career with an ecological study of movement patterns in Mountain Pygmy Possum in the Victorian high plains in 1986 followed by work on invertebrates at the Museum of Victoria and Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre. She was co-author of the book, An overview of the conservation of the non-marine invertebrates of Australia in 1997. Her PhD undertaken at Monash University/CRC for Freshwater Ecology, investigated assessment of biodiversity in permanent and temporary wetlands. Since 2003 she has been operating as an independent consultant.

Rhonda has undertaken considerable work on Australian Ramsar sites. She was on the Ramsar Advisory Technical Panel (2005-2009), has written over 22 Ecological Character Descriptions, developed the nomination documents for the last two listed Australian sites, and was the Society of Wetland Scientists representative to the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel (2013-2015).

Other experience includes prioritising aquatic ecosystems for conservation, trial of the Australian National Aquatic Ecosystem classification and the High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystem Framework, and development of Module 5 of the Australian Aquatic Ecosystems Toolkit – the Integrated Ecological Condition Assessment Framework. Rhonda was the lead ecologist on the National Cultural Flows Research Program, led the MDBA Native Fish Recovery Strategy and the development of the Basin Science Platform for implementation of the Basin Plan. Rhonda has served on numerous advisory committees to regional Catchment Management Authorities, State and Federal agencies and served nine years on the Victorian Scientific Advisory Committee for the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

Professor Kingsley Dixon (WA)

John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kingsley Dixon is a botanist at Curtin University working in threatened species conservation and ecosystem restoration. He was appointed to the Committee in March 2015. Kingsley is a strong advocate of enabling communities to be effective deliverers of science in conservation and restoration in community-led programs. This includes programs with traditional owners in the mid-west of Western Australia, the Galganyem Trust in the Kimberley and southwest Australian noongar groups. Specialist areas include seed science and technology, plant ecophysiology, mycorrhizal biology, pollination ecology with a major focus linking science to more effective on-ground ecological restoration with the mining industry, landcare and coastcare organisations.

Kingsley was awarded the Linnean Medal for Botany (2013) and was the 2016 Western Australian Scientist of the Year for his work in the role of smoke and fire chemicals in germination ecology of Australian plants. Executive of the international Society for Ecological Restoration, and Foundation Chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia and the International Network for Seed Based Restoration, Vice-Chair of the IUCN Orchid Specialist Group and Plant Reintroduction Group and is a member of the Western Australian Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

Dr Rachael Gallagher (NSW)

Dr Rachael Gallagher was appointed to the Committee in November 2020. She is Senior Lecturer in Plant Ecology and Conservation Science at Macquarie University in New South Wales. Rachael works to ensure that plants are protected and recognised for their vital contribution to society. She runs a research program investigating plant diversity and adaptation, including experimental and field studies of plant responses to key threatening processes such as climate change. Rachael’s research draws on national and international initiatives on plant traits and ranges, several of which she contributes to directly as co-curator of the national AusTraits database. She uses these rich sources of data to inform continental and global scale studies in plant biogeography.

Rachael has worked in plant science since 2004, initially at the National Herbarium of NSW and subsequently as an Australian Research Council Early Career Research Fellow (DECRA 2017-2021) after completing her PhD on the functional ecology of climbing plants in 2012. She served on the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee from 2016-2021 (Deputy Chair 2019-2021).

In 2020, she was awarded NSW Premiers Prize for Early Career Research (Biological Sciences) in recognition of her national assessment of the impacts of the 2019-2020 bushfire season on Australian plant diversity. Her work prioritising plant species for recovery actions after the fires has been widely applied to inform planning, management, and extinction risk assessment at the State and Commonwealth level. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and has worked closely with the NSW Saving our Species conservation program to deliver research for strategic threat management.

Professor Richard Harper (WA)

Professor Richard Harper was appointed to the Committee in February 2019. He is a Professor at Murdoch University, which he joined in 2009. This followed twenty years science and policy experience with the Western Australian government in programs addressing salinity, plantation and farm forestry establishment and climate change mitigation. Professor Harper has a B.Sc. Agric. (Hons) and PhD (Soil Science) from the University of Western Australia.

His research program is investigating the use of carbon mitigation investment to drive landscape scale improvements in soil, water, forest and biodiversity management. This has involved work with the agriculture, forestry and water sectors and encompassed sequestration in plants and soil and novel bioenergy systems. Current projects include work with dryland reforestation, an exploration of the use of carbon markets in mangrove protection and restoration and understanding the carbon and water dynamics in eucalypt forests in response to management and climate change. Recent work has also examined the major agricultural soil management problem of water repellency. His research program currently comprises 8 PhD students and 2 Post-Doctoral Fellows, funded through a range of grants from government and industry.

Richard was a lead author on the 2014 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (WGIII), a member of the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (2015-16), President of the Australian Council of Agricultural Deans (2018-19), Chair of the IUFRO Taskforce on Forests, Soil and Water (2015-2017) and a member of the Global Forest Expert Panel on forest and water interactions.

Professor Christopher Johnson (Tas)

Professor Chris Johnson was appointed to the Committee in November 2020. He is Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Tasmania.

Chris is an ecologist with a more than 30-year career of research and teaching in conservation science and Australian wildlife. He also researches the environmental history of Australia, to understand the effects of long-term environmental changes and interactions with humans on the dynamics of fauna communities and species extinctions. He is an authority on the ecology and biology of marsupials and has conducted field studies of threatened marsupials in many parts of Australia. He also studies the management of invasive species, where his research aims to use ecological understanding to find new ways to reduce impacts of invasive species on native biodiversity at landscape scales. He was awarded the 2007 Whitley Medal of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW, the 2008 Troughton Medal of the Australian Mammal Society, the 2012 Australian Ecology research Award of the Ecological Society of Australia, and the 2013 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research.

Chris serves on several advisory committees, including as Red List Coordinator for the IUCN Australasian Marsupials and Monotremes Specialist Group; member of the Science Advisory Network to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy; and member of the Tasmanian Threatened Species Scientific Advisory Committee.

Professor David Keith (NSW)

Professor David Keith was appointed to the Committee in November 2013. He is Professor of Botany at the University of New South Wales, deputy director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science and Senior Principal Research Scientist at the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment where he has worked as an ecologist since 1986. His research activities include field and modelling studies of the dynamics of plant populations, communities and their habitats and their application to the conservation of biodiversity.

David leads long term research projects on the dynamics of heathland, mallee, upland swamp and grassy woodland ecosystems within the Australian Long Term Ecological Research Network. These have helped to advance understanding of interactions between native vegetation and bushfire, climate change, grazing and diseases.

Several of David's studies have assessed risks and management options for species of threatened flora and fauna, as well as threatened ecological communities. His research also contributed to the development, testing and application of conservation risk assessment methods, including Red List methods for both species and ecosystems. He led the scientific development of IUCN Red List criteria for ecosystems and co-leads the Red List of Ecosystems theme within IUCN's Commission on Ecosystem Management.

David served on the NSW Scientific Committee (2003-2008), the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Standards and Petitions Subcommittee, and chairs the IUCN Committee for Scientific Standard of the Red List of Ecosystems. He has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed scientific papers and an award-winning book, 'Ocean shores to desert dunes: the native vegetation of New South Wales and the ACT'.

Dr Nicola Mitchell (WA)

Dr Nicola Mitchell was appointed to the Committee in March 2015. She is a physiological ecologist focused on anticipating and mitigating the impacts of climate and habitat change on threatened species. Nicola has studied amphibians and reptiles for the past 25 years, with research locations ranging from alpine Tasmania to the Kimberley, to offshore islands in New Zealand. Since 2005 she has been based at the University of Western Australia, and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences and the co-leader of Conservation Biology teaching programs. Her research group apply skills in developmental and thermal biology, mechanistic modelling and population genetics, working on taxa such as sea turtles, freshwater turtles, skinks, terrestrial-breeding amphibians and mammals. Conservation strategies such as assisted colonisation and targeted gene flow are a major research interest, and Nicola is a joint program leader in the NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub on translocation, reintroductions and conservation fencing for threatened fauna.

Nicola is a member of the Western Swamp Turtle Recovery Team, the IUCN Species Survival Commission Skink Specialist Group, and recently co-led an IUCN Red Listing assessment of the threat status of all species of Australian lizards and snakes. She is a former president of the Australian Society of Herpetologists, and was a member of Western Australia’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee from 2016-18.

Associate Professor Brett Murphy (NT)

Associate Professor Brett Murphy was appointed to the Committee in November 2020. He is a researcher at Charles Darwin University. Originally from the southernmost tip of Western Australia, he fell in love with Australia's tropical north and has spent virtually all of his working life there. Trained as a botanist, Brett now has broad research interests related to the ecology and sustainable management of tropical savanna landscapes, especially savanna fire management. His research focuses on understanding:

1. the drivers of the decline of small mammals in northern Australia, especially the relative importance of predation by feral cats and inappropriate fire regimes;
2. the effectiveness of prescribed burning as a management tool in northern Australian savannas, aimed at decreasing annual fire extent and increasing the abundance of long unburnt habitat;
3. population dynamics of savanna trees, and how tree populations are affected by fire regimes; and
4. the environmental controls of fire regimes throughout Australia and the likely impacts of global environmental change.

Professor Colin Simpfendorfer (QLD)

Professor Colin Simpfendorfer was appointed to the Committee in March 2015. He is a marine biologist in the College of Science and Engineering at James Cook University. His research interests are in the fields of shark and ray biology, ecology, fisheries and conservation. He had worked in Australia and the USA as a research scientist for government, academia and a private research laboratory. Throughout his career he has conducted research that is aimed to improve the management and conservation of sharks, rays and other marine predators.

Colin has extensive experience in providing scientific advice to fisheries management and conservation agencies. He is currently the Co-Chair of the IUCN’s Shark Specialist Group. He had previously served as the Chair of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority’s Shark Resources Assessment Group, and the US National Marine Fisheries Service’s Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Team. He has served on numerous fisheries management committees, including the Queensland Shark Panel, Queensland Reef Management Advisory Committee and Western Australian Demersal Gillnet and Demersal Longline Fishery Management Advisory Committee.

Colin has published over 150 scientific papers and continues an active research program supervising postgraduate students and collaborating with colleagues in Australia and overseas.

Professor Stephen van Leeuwen (WA)

Professor Stephen van Leeuwen was appointed to the Committee in November 2020. Stephen is Australia’s first Indigenous Chair of Biodiversity and Environmental Science, based at Curtin University in Western Australia. Stephen is an astute and knowledgeable botanical ecologist, senior manager and research scientist empowered with the interpersonal and organisation skills to combine a broad scientific competency with a commitment to leadership in research to protect biodiversity and culture, while promoting the sustainable management of Country.

Stephen is a respected South West Boojarah Wardandi Noongar leader with a profound respect for Country who embraces innovation and opportunistically engages and builds collaborative relationships with Traditional Owners and other land managers with the intent to co-deliver novel and enduring outcomes for biodiversity conservation, bio-cultural land management, and the stewardship of Country.

Stephen is a dedicated botanical ecologist with a diverse research pedigree extending from threatened flora survey, fire ecology and threatened flora management through to biological survey, arid zone ecology, plant taxonomy and pollination biology. He has worked for over 38 years across Western Australia, principally in the rangelands and Kwongan sandplains, during which time he has attained a solid understanding of the patterns, process and threats influencing species/community occurrence and persistence.

As a former senior manager within the Western Australian government Stephen provided leadership and oversight to a highly motivated, capable and dedicated team of professional, technical, and administrative staff committed to the delivery of evidenced-based science to inform nature conservation and sustainable nature resource management. Outputs focused on solutions from this applied research effort, which were often co-designed and co-delivered in concert with other research providers, Traditional Owners and other land managers, ensured returns to Country and community were cultural appropriate and enduring for the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources.