Catherine Yule

Professor Catherine Yule was formally the Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) for the Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering.

Prior to coming to UniSC, Professor Yule lived and worked in SE Asia on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, Indonesian Borneo and Malaysia for over thirty years. Her multidisciplinary research focuses on the ecology of rivers, lakes and swamps, particularly subtropical and tropical peat swamps, extreme and endangered environments of global significance due to their vast carbon sequestration. Her pioneering research on tropical ecosystem functioning using microbial ecology, metagenomics and phytochemistry has provided new insights and overturned misconceptions, with important implications for conservation management and climate change mitigation.

Professor Yule also investigates other issues of global importance such as water pollution, and bioprospecting for novel bioactive compounds to combat antimicrobial resistance. She and her research team have discovered 18 new species of aquatic microbes and insects, including three novel peat swamp bacteria that exhibit antimicrobial activity against significant human pathogens.