Dr Jodi Rowley

Jodi Rowley is a conservation biologist with a focus on amphibian diversity, ecology and conservation. Based at the Australian Museum and the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, her research seeks to uncover and document biodiversity and inform conservation decisions. She also has a passion for communicating biodiversity conservation.

After obtaining a degree in Environmental Science (Honors) at the University of New South Wales, Jodi completed her Ph.D. at James Cook University, where she radio tracked rainforest frogs to help understand why some frog species were declining from disease and others weren’t. In 2006, she moved to Cambodia and began conducting amphibian research in Southeast Asia, focusing on expeditions in remote forested mountains and training young amphibian biologists. In 2008, Jodi moved back to Australia and began working for the Australian Museum and UNSW Sydney as the Curator of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Biology.

Jodi has conducted expeditions in search of amphibians in Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and co-discovered more than 40 frog species new to science, including the vampire flying frog. Her most recent work includes discovering and scientifically describing species of frogs from Australia, searching for frog species that are feared extinct, and investigating the cause and impact of a widespread mass mortality event in Australian frogs.

Jodi is the lead scientist of FrogID, a national citizen science project developed by the Australian Museum that has collected over one million records of frogs across Australia since 2017. Jodi has co-authored over 150 scientific publications and was named one of “100 Inspiring Australians” by Qantas.