I am an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. I use a combination of maths, computer models, and large data sets to understand how ecosystems work. I am passionate about science, open data, reproducible research, and teaching biologists to use math, mechanistic models and code.
I grew up in Sydney, completing an BSc at UNSW, MSc and PhD at Macquarie. I also spent 2 years in Norway, 6 months in Austria during my PhD, and collaborated with researchers...
I am an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. I use a combination of maths, computer models, and large data sets to understand how ecosystems work. I am passionate about science, open data, reproducible research, and teaching biologists to use math, mechanistic models and code.
I grew up in Sydney, completing an BSc at UNSW, MSc and PhD at Macquarie. I also spent 2 years in Norway, 6 months in Austria during my PhD, and collaborated with researchers from STRI in Panama. I returned to UNSW in 2017 with an ARC Future Fellowship.
- Publications
- Research Activities
- Teaching and Supervision
Currently, my work focusses on
* Understanding and predicting the distribution of plant types found across the Australian continent from first principles, using eco-evolutionary models,
* Assembling AusTraits - a continental database on the traits of Australian plant species,
* Development of size structured theory and models,
* Studying the impacts of climate and human management on vegetation.
While I primarily work with plants, also supervise students applying size structured population models to other systems, such as fish, dugongs and kangaroos.
My Teaching
As a teacher, I convene
BEES2041 - Data Analysis for Life and Earth Science. This core 2nd year course. Student's develop core skills in the manipulation, statistical analysis, and communication of data. Using examples from the biological, earth, and environmental sciences, they will examine the role of statistics in answering the three main types of scientific questions, and gain experience applying common methods, using the R programming language.
Intermediate R - A short course for HDR students (and others) looking to take their skills to the next level. this course runs once a year and in collaboration with UNSW Stats Central. We focus on project organisation, reproducible research, effective collaboration, and scaling up their analyses.