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Lecturer in Evolution, La Trobe University

I am a molecular ecologist in the Department of Ecology Environment and Evolution. My research is aimed at understanding the biology and population dynamics of poorly dispersing organisms (mainly invertebrates) in natural and artificially fragmented ecosystems. The primary goal is to understand how species biology and evolutionary history affects their present day distributions and their ability to cope with future environmental change.

Current Research Projects

Evolution and distribution of desert spring diversity

The desert springs fed by Lake Eyre are home to an extraordinary level of cryptic diversity. Research in these habitats in found a number of new endemic species, the vast majority of which are have persisted in these habitats since their formation and incredibly constrained in their distributions, with some species found in only a small handful of springs. Continuing research in this area concentrates on resolving the geographic scale of dispersal in this ecosystem

Experience

  • –present
    Lecturer in Evolution, La Trobe University