Eve McDonald-Madden

I am an ARC Research Fellow in the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at the University of Queensland and a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, NESP Threatened Species Hub and am a founding member of UQ Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. My research is focused on improving environmental decision-making in complex systems.

To resolve questions in environmental decision-making my group and I use a suite of analysis techniques that are largely novel to ecology and conservation. The foundation of my work is ‘Decision Theory’, a concept initially used to maximise the effectiveness of scarce military resources while dealing with the uncertainties always present in war. By investigating the use of techniques from fields such as manufacturing sciences, artificial intelligence research and economic theory we hope to improve decision-making in the face of complexity that is inherent, but often ignored, in environmental problems, incorporating the social context of decisions, the complexity of interacting species and the uncertainty faced by decisions makers.

My groups work spans all forms of conservation decision-making including population management, organisational and government reporting, the management of interacting species, ecosystem services and conservation planning.

I completed my PhD at the University of Queensland (2009), prior to that I worked for the Victorian Government on biodiversity research and management whilst completing a graduate diploma in Mathematics. I have two young children.