Kerrie Ann Wilson is an Australian environmental scientist who is the Queensland Chief Scientist and a Professor in the Faculty of Science at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). [1] She was formerly the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability and Research Integrity) at QUT. Wilson is also an affiliated professor in conservation science at the University of Copenhagen, honorary professor at The University of Queensland, a member of the Australian Heritage Council and the Australian Natural Sciences Commissioner for UNESCO.
Wilson holds a bachelor's degree in environmental science (1999) from The University of Queensland and a PhD from The University of Melbourne (2004). [1] Her PhD was undertaken in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, based in Cambridge.
From 2005 to 2007, Wilson held a postdoctoral research fellowship at The University of Queensland. In 2007, she left academia to become director of conservation with The Nature Conservancy Australia. She returned to The University of Queensland in 2008 after being awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2010, Wilson was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship, which she commenced after returning from maternity leave in 2013.
In 2016, Wilson was appointed the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and professor of biological sciences at The University of Queensland. In 2019, Wilson became the executive director of the Institute for Future Environments at the Queensland University of Technology.
On 4 August 2023, Wilson was appointed the Queensland Chief Scientist succeeding Queensland’s Interim Chief Scientist, Professor Bronwyn Harch. [2]
Wilson's research bridges the science, policy and practice of conservation, with the aim of finding the most effective ways to protect and restore different kinds of landscapes and ecosystems. Her research focuses on applied conservation resource allocation problems, such as where to invest limited resources to protect or restore biodiversity and the role of ecosystem services in achieving conservation goals. [3] She is a proponent of the theory that conservation investments should be influenced equally by biodiversity values, ecological dynamics and the socio-economic context. [4]
Wilson has developed analytical approaches to capture the social context in environmental decision making and demonstrated how to integrate social, economic and ecological analyses to improve evaluation and prediction of the outcomes of environmental policies and programs. [5] She has also made contributions to the field of ecosystem services through the integration of decision science with ecosystem service assessments to investigate how management can enhance human well-being while improving protection of the natural environment. [6] Her research has provided foundation for identifying conservation strategies in production landscapes, that involve many alternative land management options, including on the island of Borneo. [7]
Wilson has published over 170 peer-reviewed publications, including several in Nature and Science.
The University of Queensland is a public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone universities, an informal designation of the oldest university in each state. UQ is also a founding member of edX, Australia's leading Group of Eight and the international research-intensive Association of Pacific Rim Universities.
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Maree Therese Smith is an Australian researcher, inventor and innovator based at the University of Queensland. She is executive director of the Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development, and TetraQ, head of the Pain Research Group in the UQ School of Pharmacy, and the inventor and developer of a potential novel treatment for chronic pain, EMA401.
Justine Shaw is an Australian Antarctic researcher, best known for her conservation work on subantarctic islands, currently working at the Queensland University of Technology. She has a wide global research network, having worked in Australia, South Africa, sub-Antarctic/Antarctic and the Arctic.
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Guillermo "Bill" Capati, is an adjunct professor and chartered professional engineer in Australia in the field of civil and environmental engineering. Currently, Capati is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland since December 2008.
Mary Jacquiline Romero is a quantum physicist in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research expertise and interests are in the field of quantum foundations and quantum information. In particular, Romero is an experimental quantum physicist studying the properties of single photons for the development of new quantum alphabets and the nature of quantum causality.
Sarah Bekessy is an Australian interdisciplinary conservation scientist with a background in conservation biology and experience in social sciences, planning, and design. Her research interests focus on the intersection between science, policy, and the design of environmental management. She is currently a professor and ARC Future Fellow at RMIT University in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. She leads the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group.
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Arun Sharma is an Indian Australian computer science professor. He is a distinguished emeritus professor at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) where he was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Commercialisation from 2004 to 2019. He is the Council Chair of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. Within the multinational Adani Group, he is also an Advisor to the Chairman and Group Head for Sustainability and Climate Change. He was a cofounder of Australia's National ICT Research Centre of Excellence (NICTA), and Director of the Translational Research Institute (Australia). In the course of his institutional duties, Sharma played a significant role in the development of Australian technology research capability, the promotion of translational research in agriculture and biosciences within Queensland, and the fostering of international technological research cooperation between Australia and India. Sharma's professional achievements have been recognized by awards by the Premier of Queensland, the Office of the Chief Scientist (Australia), the India Australia Business & Community Awards (IABCA), the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, and the Royal Order of Australia. He was born in the town of Banmankhi in the Indian state of Bihar.
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