ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Joel Williams is a quantitative marine ecology at IMAS, University of Tasmania. Joel’s research interests span a range of topics from biodiversity mapping, remote sensing, temperate mesophotic ecosystems, Southern Ocean ecology, fisheries management, and monitoring program design and implementation. His currently using joint species distribution models to understand how the changing climate is influencing changes in benthic fish communities across Australia and the Southern Ocean. Joel has been an active member of AMSA since 2006 and is currently a committee member for the Tasmanian Branch.

Joel Williams

Chair of AMSA-NZMSS 2024 Organising Committee

Chris is a benthic ecologist whose interests are in understanding how sea floor sedimentary ecosystems function. Much of his professional life has been spent developing our understanding of anthropogenic impacts on the benthos and developing evidence-based approaches to manage these threats. Chris is a professor of marine biology at Griffith University where he previously served as Head of the School of Environment. Before joining Griffith he was Professor of Marine Biology at Liverpool University (UK) and prior to that Professor of Marine Ecology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK) where he was also Director of the Dove Marine Laboratory. Chris is a Fellow of the Marine Biological Association, a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology and holds Chartered Marine Scientist status. He was a Governor and member of Council of the Marine Biological Association (UK) from 2004 to 2021. Chris has been an editor of the ICES Journal of Marine Science, the Journal of the Marine Biological Association UK and the Journal of Applied Ecology. Chris is one of the research leaders of the Blue Economy CRC. Chris served as AMSA Treasurer 2021-2022.

Chris Frid

AMSA National Council President

Gretta Pecl is a Professor of marine ecology at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), and the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS) at UTAS. She has a with specific expertise in how climate change is resulting in the climate-driven redistribution of life on earth, and she leads several national and international efforts to better understand climate-driven changes to species distributions, including the National multi award-winning citizen science initiative Redmap Australia and the Species on the Move international conference series. She is a Lead Author for the IPCC AR6 report, and has a strong passion for science communication and engagement with the public. Gretta is ranked in the top 200 most influential climate scientists in the world (and the top 20 women).

Gretta Pecl

Alexandre Che is a PhD student at Auckland University of Technology (NZ). His doctoral research focuses on the mysterious ocean migrations of eels from Aotearoa – New Zealand. He is developing and using indirect methods such as stable isotope analysis and environmental DNA/RNA to track the movement of these enigmatic creatures in the open ocean. He has volunteered with various associations in Europe and the Indian ocean to share his passion for the ocean

Alexandre Che

 

Dr Katie Cresswell is a research fellow at IMAS, UTAS and team leader for the Modelling and Mapping Team, working on problems in fisheries and ecology. Katie is the president of the Tasmanian branch of AMSA.

Katie Cresswell

Dr Leslie Watson is a marine biologist who examines the Antarctic benthic ecosystem with particular interest in the ecology, phylogenetics and population genetics of Antarctic Sea Anemones. She is the immediate past president of the Tasmanian branch of AMAS.

Leslie Watson

Dr Beth Strain is a Senior lecturer at IMAS who applies multi-disciplinary approaches to monitoring and restoring threatened marine species and ecosystems. She has researched oyster/seagrass/seaweed habitats in the UK, Italy, and her home country of Australia.

Beth Strain

Maarten is a marine ecologist with expertise in coral reefs and soft sediment habitats. He currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CSIRO, where he is developing a roadmap to integrate eDNA methods in marine park monitoring. He received his PhD from Curtin University (Perth), which focused on cryptobenthic fish species in Indonesia. His research uses methods such as eDNA, network analysis and classic survey techniques to better understand the functioning of coastal ecosystems. Maarten’s previous research includes projects in Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, and the Philippines.

Maarten De Brauwer

 

Rowan leads the Ecosystem Modelling team in the Sustainable Marine Futures Program at CSIRO Environment in Hobart and and co-leads the Environmental Change and Adaptation research theme in the Centre for Marine Socioecology at the University of Tasmania, where he is an adjunct senior researcher. His diverse multidisciplinary interests centre around sustainable stewardship of marine social-ecological systems, with a particular focus on assessing status, trends, risks and opportunities across Blue Economy sectors and on developing strategies for climate change adaptation.

Rowan Trebilco

Luke is a phytoplankton taxonomist with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. His research is focused around the Continuous Plankton Recorder program for the Southern Ocean (SO-CPR), funded by IMOS (Integrated Marine Observing System). This program samples the plankton found in the surface waters between the Australian and Antarctic continents, and my role focuses on phytoplankton taxonomy. The data set covers the last 30 years and is continuously growing in temporal and spatial scope. With this rich data set, we are able to track and map trends and changes to plankton communities through time and assess the impacts of climate change on the Southern Ocean.

Luke Brokensha

Olivia Johnson is a PhD candidate at IMAS who is currently investigating how we can safeguard threatened reef species around Australia through long-term monitoring programmes comprised of underwater visual census biodiversity data. Outside of her PhD, Olivia has worked across multiple projects such as The Handfish Conservation Project; urchin fishing, populations and kelp recovery; broadscale environmental monitoring programs around Tasmania; and at sea as a krill biologist. Her interests lie within ecology and conservation, with a background in fisheries and management.

Olivia Johnson

Tyson Jones is a PhD candidate at IMAS who studies nocturnal reef ecology and fish behaviour. Beyond his PhD, Tyson works as a marine environmental consultant in Tasmania, is the Sightings Manager for the Redmap Australia project and a volunteer diver for Reef Life Survey.

Tyson Jones

 

Anna is a marine scientist with over 20 years experience in resource management science, currently managing a team of 20 scientists at Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Her career has focused on the community dynamics of intertidal assemblages both in hard and soft shore habitats, more recently working on the effects of land based impacts on estuarine function.

Anna Madarasz-Smith

Kristin is Managing Director of Environment Pacific Pty Ltd and works on projects across the Pacific.  She currently serves on the NZMSS committee and previously was vice-president of AMSA (Vic).   Kristin is an advocate for the protection and research of the marine environment and mentors our young professionals in this field.  She is an ecologist and international biodiversity and social safeguard specialist with over 25 years experience working on a range of coastal and marine projects primarily associated with tropical reef habitats. 

Kristin Keane