Distinguished Professor David Lindenmayer, AO, FAA, FAAS, FRZS, FESA, FNAS, is an Australian scientist and academic. He is recognized as a conservation biologist and landscape ecologist, with a significant impact on our understanding of forest, woodland, and agricultural ecosystems, and the sustainable management of natural resources. His contributions to long-term ecological research and biodiversity conservation have shaped the field for over 38 years. His work has transformed ecological thinking and influenced sustainable natural resource management policies. Much of this work has helped guide improved decision making for enhanced biodiversity conservation, such as how best to limit interacting fire and logging effects on biodiversity in forests, and how to ensure revegetation programs on degraded farmlands are effective for threatened birds, reptiles and mammals, including under increasingly variable weather conditions resulting from rapid climate change. [1]
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David Lindenmayer is a Distinguished Professor (level E3) of Ecology and Conservation Biology at the Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society. As of August 2026 he has published over 1606 scientific works, including 1004 peer-reviewed papers in international scientific journals (including 334 1st authored). He has also published 51 books (35 1st authored), and 132 book chapters (86 1st authored). His research covers a wide array of topics, from forest and woodland biodiversity to landscape and fire ecology, agricultural landscape restoration and conservation, and the importance of long-term ecological research and monitoring. Many of these works are considered foundational texts in these fields. Furthermore, Professor Lindenmayer is among the world's most productive and highly-cited scientists, particularly in forest ecology and conservation biology. As of August 2026 he has a Google Scholar H-Index of 167 with a total of 119,459 citations. [2] [3] He was included in the 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, and 2014 Clarivate Highly Cited Lists. [4] ScholarGPS rankings list David in the top 0.01% of all scholars worldwide, as 4th most cited in Forest Ecology, Biodiversity, and Habitat, 5th in Conservation Biology, and 219th in life sciences. [5] Between 2004 and 2024, David Lindenmayer was listed among the top 2000 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) and the 2nd most cited researcher in the field of forest ecology, the 6th most cited in conservation biology, and the 22nd most cited academic in the field of ecology according to Google Scholar Citations. He is consistently ranked in the top 1% of cited scientists in environmental and ecological sciences worldwide and is one of the top 0.1% of scientists across all disciplines having published over 10 peer-reviewed international articles every year for the past 18 years. [6] In 2020, 2021 and 2022, The Australian newspaper listed the 30 leading Australian scientists, and Lindenmayer was listed as the leading conservation and biodiversity expert in the nation. [7]
David’s discoveries are the product of his commitment to long-term research, demonstrated through six large-scale, long-term research programs under his direction (ranging from 21 to 45 years in duration) including the Sustainable Farms Project. These programs focus on the conservation of biodiversity and sustainability across a range of settings, including reserves, national parks, production forests, plantations, and farmland.
His areas of expertise also include environmental management, forestry management and environment, terrestrial ecology, wildlife and habitat management, environmental monitoring, forestry fire management, natural resource management, zoology and forestry sciences, [1] with a particular focus on the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum. [8] His work on wildlife conservation and biodiversity has, for many years, led world research in this area. [9] Lindenmayer's conservation and biodiversity research has been recognised through numerous awards, including the Eureka Science Prize, and the Australian Natural History Medallion by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. [10] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia "for distinguished service to conservation and the environment in the field of landscape ecology, to tertiary education, and to professional organisations". [11]
Professor Lindenmayer has recently published The Forest Wars: The ugly truth about what's happening in our tall forests. This book details the destruction of native forests by government corporations and logging industry that has been linked to worsening bushfires worse, killing wildlife and costing taxpayers millions.
