Joshua Cinner

Professor Joshua Cinner began working on coral reefs while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica in the mid 1990s. He has since completed a Master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island in 2000 and a PhD from James Cook University in 2006. Josh’s research explores how social, economic, and institutional conditions influence the ways in which people use, perceive, and govern natural resources. His background is in human geography and he often works closely with ecologists to uncover complex linkages between social and ecological systems. He has worked on human dimensions of resource management in Australia, Jamaica, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mauritius, Seychelles, Indonesia, Mozambique, and the USA. He has published >180 scientific articles, is an Australian Laureate Fellow, a ISI “Highly Cited” researcher, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, and is recipient of the 2017 Elinor Ostrom Award for collective governance of the commons; the 2018 Mid-Career Award from the International Coral Reef Society; the 2020 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Research; and three other prestigious fellowships from the Australian Research Council. He leads the Thriving Oceans Research Hub at the University of Sydney, where he is a Professor of Geography.