Public Lecture: Is science any use for saving species and habitat?
Professor Hugh Possingham directs a threatened species recovery hub that is doing research for saving species. Hugh asks the questions, do we really need more science? Why don’t we just take the knowledge we have and save the species?
In this Public Lecture, Professor Possingham will discuss the value of monitoring and information for achieving nature conservation outcomes – indeed what is the point of research for any aspect of life? Is some research more useful than other research and should utility factor into decisions about research funding? Hugh will use decision science tools (optimisation) as the framework for deciding what research is useful.
Professor Hugh Possingham
Aside from his day job at the University of Queensland, Hugh has a variety of broader public roles advising policy makers, conservation groups and managers by sitting on 15 committees and boards outside the University, including: the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists (founding member), Conservation Letters – an international scientific journal (founding editor), the Council of the Australian Academy of Science (recently stepped down), and several other environmental NGO scientific advisory committees.
Professor Possingham and Dr Barry Traill wrote “The Brigalow Declaration”, used by Premier Beattie to halve land clearing in Queensland thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia by more than 5% per annum and saving an area the size of Portugal from conversion into farmland.
Professor Possingham has coauthored 540+ refereed publications covered by the Web of Science (27 in Science, Nature or PNAS). He currently directs two national research centres across 11 institutions ($15 million per annum) and he has supervised (or is supervising) 80 PhD students and 50 postdoctoral fellows.
The Possingham lab uses mathematics to formulate and solve problems for saving plants, animals and ecosystems.
*This event is run in conjunction with BrisScience.
All are welcome to attend this free event, however, registration will be required. Please visit the event website for more details.
For more information about AMSI Winter School 2016, please visit the website at http://ws.amsi.org.au.