I am currently a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne in the Interdisciplinary MetaResearch Group (IMeRG), and we think a lot about how science is done, and ways to improve it. I am also affiliated with the Quantitative and Applied Ecology Group (QAEco) at the University of Melbourne, where I have previously worked on the early detection of threats to biodiversity and opportunities for conservation. My most recent postdoc before returning to Melbourne was with the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge, where I scanned the horizon for emerging risks and benefits associated with rapidly changing technologies, such as bioengineering. I am still an active Research Affiliate of CSER.
I completed my PhD in 2013, supervised by Prof Mark Burgman (environmental risk analysis) and Dr Fiona Fidler (cognitive psychology). I have a degree in environmental science and ecology, including some history and philosophy of science. My doctoral thesis examined expert judgment under severe uncertainty, with a focus on reducing overconfidence and improving scientific judgements. I have published papers in a variety of disciplines and was awarded the CSF ‘best young researcher’ award from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (Environmental decisions, risks and uncertainties conference, 2010).