Stuart Parsons

Professor Parsons is the incoming President of the Australasian Council for Environmental Deans and Directors. His research is in the broad area of sensory ecology and animal behaviour, with a focus on bioacoustics. Past outputs have covered topics as diverse as auditory anatomy, biological sonar, mating systems, and habitat selection in natural and modified landscapes. Although much of his work has focused on bats, he has also worked with insects, birds and whales. Much of Professor Parsons’ work also has a strong applied focus, using his knowledge of acoustics and quantitative methods to develop detection and classification systems for vocalising animals. Systems developed have been used by conservation organisations to track birds in the wild, and state government to detect invasive species. He has also worked with federal and local government and multinational companies on large infrastructure development projects such as dams, roads, airports and quarries. His research is international with active collaborations in Australia, Europe, USA, Central America, South Africa, Taiwan, China, and Thailand. Professor Parsons’ research is also multi-disciplinary with active collaborations with physicists (acoustic arrays), engineers (bio-engineering – measure respiration from free-flying animals) and computer scientists/bioinformaticians (acoustic informatics).