Leadership
The leadership team consists of:
Professor Ben Smith (Director of Research)
Professor Ben Smith is the Director of Research within the Institute, responsible for the strategic delivery and execution of the Institute's research strategies.
Professor Mark Tjoelker (Interim Director)
Professor Mark Tjoelker is the Interim Director of the Institute. His research interests centre on the impacts of global environmental change on terrestrial ecosystems, particularly the effects on respiration and carbon cycling, climatic adaptation in plant traits, and the biogeography of forest tree species.
Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh
Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh is an internationally recognised expert in the field of functional microbial ecology, climate change and environmental biotechnology with particular focus on the role of microbes in ecosystem function and environmental sustainability within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Distinguished Professor Belinda Medlyn (Theme Leader - Ecosystem Function and Integration)
Distinguished Professor Belinda Medlyn's research focuses on how plants, especially forests, respond to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate change. She works at the interface between experiments and models within the Ecosystem Function and Integration theme.
Professor James Cook (Theme Leader - Plants Animals and Interactions)
Professor James Cook is the Theme Leader for the Plants, Animals and Interactions research theme within the Institute. His research focuses on the ecology and evolution of species interactions, with particular emphasis on insect/plant and insect/microbe interactions.
Professor Uffe Nielsen (Theme Leader - Soil Biology and Genomics)
Professor Uffe Nielsen's research interests centre on the distribution and community composition of soil biota (microbes and soil mites in particular) across various spatial scales in two contrasting habitats within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Distinguished Professor Ian Wright (Chief Scientist)
Distinguished Professor Ian Wright is a Professor in Plant Functional Ecology, and the new Chief Scientist within the Institute. Ian is best known for global-scale analysis of plant traits, for careful quantification of plant structure-function relationships, and for using concepts from microeconomics to understand plant ecology and evolution.